


Illiterate

by ItsJustaDressDummy



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Barebacking, Bottom Azumane Asahi, Boys Kissing, Creampie, Crying During Sex, Explicit Sexual Content, Falling In Love, Fluff and Smut, Idiots in Love, M/M, Masturbation, Poetry, Rainer Maria Rilke - Freeform, Rimming, Sexual Fantasy, Stalking (mentioned), Top Nishinoya Yuu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:15:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 50,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24560671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsJustaDressDummy/pseuds/ItsJustaDressDummy
Summary: Noya really just wanted to get a non-sucky coffee. Just a little something to help him through his terrible class on love poetry, but Kiyoko had to be an awful friend and enlighten him about his past relationships. And then the confectionist sucker-punched him with a love poem that left him reeling, but coming back for more.It was all a bit of a clusterfuck, but still kind of nice.
Relationships: Azumane Asahi/Nishinoya Yuu, Shimizu Kiyoko/Tanaka Ryuunosuke
Comments: 15
Kudos: 174





	1. 1

The glass door creaked open, which was already irritating enough because it was like seven in the fucking morning, nobody needed creaking doors at seven in the morning. But then Noya saw the humongous line of people waiting to order coffee and he wanted to die.

„Kiyoko-Chan…“ he whined.

Her reply came immediately. „No.“

„But look at that line! I’ll probably starve to death waiting in there!“

„It will go by fast. We’re at a coffee shop, not at a doctor. This is just the morning rush.“

Noya groaned loudly as Kiyoko pulled him towards the end of the line. Or the beginning of the line? Either way, it marked the entrance into hell for Noya.

As they entered the Snake Way, Kiyoko threw him a side-eye anyway. „You know you’re going to need that coffee for Yuasa-Sensei’s class.“

And then Noya really started to pout, because he did, didn’t he. It was going to be math class in high school all over again. Staring at the teacher, staring at his notes, copying what he could from the board, not having a shred of an idea what was going on.

„I just don’t get it,“ Noya sulked, „Some of that stuff is more than 400 years old. Hasn’t everything anyone could ever say about it been said already? Why do we have to talk about it again?“

„You know it’s not about that,“ Kiyoko responded sternly. As usual, she wasn’t giving him an _inch_. „We are supposed to learn from it, to study the language and the imagery, so that we can recognize it when we read other works of poetry. Maybe to help and inspire us to write our own.“

Noya wrinkled his nose as they shuffled forwards in line. „Write my _own_? I’d rather be benched for the next month,“ he murmured.

Kiyoko snorted, her eyes sharp as knives. „That is unsurprising considering that you took this major because you thought it would be an easy pass.“

Woah, did she really have to call him out like that? „I didn’t think it would be _easy_. I just didn’t think it would be this hard?“

„Yes, because you thought that you could leech off of my knowledge and skills to help you pass.“

Noya’s mouth fell open. The defamation! 

He was about to protest violently, but caught Kiyoko’s knowing look and bit his tongue. Well, okay, maybe he _had_ thought that Kiyoko would help him out with the exams, but it’s not like he expected her to help him cheat or anything. Besides, he’d been more preoccupied with the possibility of spending time with Kiyoko and her maybe realizing that he was indeed funny and cool and worth going on a date with.

Inwardly cringing at his dumbass self from three years ago, Noya took a couple more steps in the line. If Kiyoko hadn’t been into him during the two years he had known her in high school, she wasn’t very likely gonna realize the error of her ways in university. And if something was uncool, it was lurking in the shadows like a creep waiting for his chance to strike or whatever. Noya was just glad that he’d understood pretty soon that appreciating her as a friend was the best thing that could happen to their relationship, and basta. 

They took a few more steps and by _God_ , was this line every going to end? Noya summoned all his strength and let loose the most exhausted and petulant sounding sigh he could. Kiyoko gave his shoulder a comforting pat.

„I don’t think it’s just the poetry, you know,“ Noya mused, „It’s the _love_ poetry.“

„What about it?“ Kiyoko asked, her eyes fixed on the menu above the counter.

„It’s cheesy. And boring, oh my _God_ , is it boring. Like all of those nature images always meaning the same shit. A firefly means ephemerality of life, spring means joy and lightness, a horse carrying a sack of rice means you’re gonna get fucked in the ass or whatever.“

The corners of Kiyoko’s lips twitched upwards. „It’s not always about the image, though. Sometimes it’s about the tone or literally the sound of the language. Or the feeling that a certain image invokes in you. Those images of nature have persisted throughout the course of time because people can relate to them, you know. They make them feel something.“

Noya frowned up at the menu. Since it was almost March, they had already kicked out his favorite sweet potato latte and replaced it with those sakura flavored drinks. Yuck. He was just going to have to settle for something with caramel, then. Maybe he could convince the barista to squeeze four espresso shots in his drink?

„Well,“ he mumbled, „It doesn’t make me feel anything.“

Kiyoko replied easily, „Yes, because you’ve never been in love.“

And just- Hold the phone, _what_?

Noya gaped at this stranger next to him. „Of course I have! I’ve been in love with you for like the entire time I was in high school!“ And a little bit beyond that, but that wasn’t the point, the point was what the fuck?

She gave him one of those piercing looks that made him feel like he was trapped on a petri dish under a microscope. „No, you weren’t in love with me. Ryuu was.“ She smiled. „Ryuu _is_ in love with me. But you weren’t.“

„Well,“ Noya drawled, „It’s real nice of you to just decide that for yourself, but that doesn’t make it-“

Kiyoko steamrolled right over him. „You’ve never asked me out on a date once. During all those years.“

„Because I was shy and awkward and in high school!“ Noya countered. 

„Noya-Kun, you are not shy. And you weren’t shy when you asked out anybody of your exes.“ 

„With whom I was all very much in love, I might add.“

The look on Kiyoko’s face shot him right between the eyes. „And with whom you all broke up after two months because they were all, and I quote, suffocating you.“

„But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t in love with them?!“ Noya sputtered.

„That is true,“ Kiyoko conceded, „But I still don’t think you were.“

There was nothing left to do but open and close his mouth like a fish at her.

A voice reached from the counter to Noya’s cotton filled ears: „Welcome to Drip and Drop Coffee Bar, may I take your order?“

Noya looked helplessly up at a colossus of a guy with resting criminal face and just said, „Huh?“

„Welcome to Drip and Drop Coffee Bar, may I take your order?“ the giant repeated perfectly, even the intonation was the same. Together with the non-existent eyebrows, he left the impression of a top of the line cyborg.

„Uh, a caramel thing, a, uh, a latte! With, uh, something, with shots of, of espresso. Four!“ Noya could barely string two words together because the blasphemy? The utter, blank-faced lie? Him not having been in _love_?

The barista wrote something on a paper cup, punched up the prize. „345 yen, please,“ he proclaimed and looked like he wanted to bully Noya into handing over his lunch money.

Noya rummaged around in his pocket for some coins and distantly wondered why they even came here, because it wasn’t for the jovial staff.

A metallic clank pulled Noya’s gaze towards the glass case next to the register. Gleaming baking trays filled with bear and cat face-shaped donuts, paw-shaped cookies and pastel-colored sakura matcha cheesecake slices were displayed in the case. Kiyoko inspected every newly arrived tray like a hawk and ah, yes. That was why they came here. He wordlessly passed the barista his money and nodded when the giant thanked him for his business. 

With a roiling feeling in the pit of his stomach, Noya trudged over to the serving counter. He’d totally been in love before. With his first girlfriend definitely, who he’d met at a house party and who he’d lost his virginity to and who… who had at one point stopped calling or texting him and Noya had been… relieved. Kinda sad, and relieved. But that guy! That guy who he’d met at the hairdresser and who had studied… something and… he’d definitely had a name, but Noya couldn’t remember it at this exact moment.

He sighed. Suffocating, huh?

Unbidden, Noya thought back to the evening where he’d used that word to describe his past relationships. They’d sat in the tiny living room corner of Ryuu’s and his apartment. Kiyoko had gotten them some white wine because they were adults now, and they could cry into their fancy wine while watching Descendants of the Sun if they wanted to. Prone to disrespecting boundaries when he was tipsy, Noya had asked how his friends had kept their feelings for each other from fizzling out. He’d described what usually happened to him. He’d like a person and most of the time they’d like him back, but with time they would want things from him he couldn’t give and smother him with those things until he needed to leave. Ryuu had replied along the lines of „I don’t really know what our magic trick is, but whatever it is, it’s a good thing and I’m not gonna question it“. Kiyoko had just looked at Noya. It had kind of creeped him out, so he’d just grinned at her and gone back to crying over a tv show.

A hand deposited a paper cup on the counter. It was accompanied by a disembodied voice that announced, „Caramel latte, four espresso shots.“

Noya took the coffee and stared into its creamy, light brown depth and holy fucking _shit_ , he had never been in love.

Kiyoko caught up with him. Noya looked at her and moaned, „Did you have to drop all of those truth bombs on me at ass o’clock in the morning?“

For a second, Kiyoko stared at her shoes guiltily. Then, she raised her eyes to his and said quietly, „I really like my major, you know. I worked pretty hard to get into Japanese Literature at UTokyo and I don’t begrudge you your sports scholarship, just… I wish that sometimes you would take your major more seriously instead of complaining about it so much. But I know that you’re trying. I’m sorry for what I said.“

Her coffee arrived, but Kiyoko didn’t take it. Instead, she squeezed Noya’s shoulder gingerly. „And I’m sorry for… saying that you’ve never been in love before. I have to tell you that I do suspect that, but only you know your feelings and I shouldn’t have trivialized your past relationships. It was disrespectful of me, and I’m truly sorry.“

Noya took a deep breath and left it out in a huff. „It’s alright,“ he said, „I think you’re onto something, anyway.“ He frowned into his drink. 

Well, there wasn’t any point in trying to figure this out now. He had bigger shit to deal with, anyway. His attempt to distract himself by swallowing his latte in one entire gulp worked perfectly, since he then had to deal with a burnt lip. Kiyoko giggled with relief next to him and reached for the powdered cinnamon. 

„So what are we going to do with your poetry class?“ she pondered.

Noya peered critically into the paper bag Kiyoko had brought with her from the register. A chocolate covered donut with a friendly bear face eyed him back. Maybe he could persuade Kiyoko into sharing it with him for being such a meanie?

In order to convey his thoughts on the subject accurately, Noya sighed dramatically. „Maybe I can convince Yuasa-Sensei that love poetry just fucking _sucks_ and she’ll just cancel her class. I’ll just go up to her and be all like, look, it’s unrelatable, it’s uninspired, if it ever accurately reflected anybody’s feelings, it was like the outdated feelings of a monk from 300 years ago, and if you expect me to write a five page paper over the most boring 17 sound units, you-“

A hand seized Noya’s wrist gently. Noya looked at it. It was a man’s hand. Bigger than Noya’s own and it encircled his wrist easily. Noya raised his eyes in confusion. Maybe he’d forgotten his change?

But this wasn’t the robot from the register, it was somebody else. A guy more than a head taller than Noya with long hair that was pulled back into a loose bun. Noya vaguely noticed that his hair had almost the exact same color as his eyes, a dark shade of brown. Only his eyebrows were a little bit darker and, ah. Noya’s lips twitched. Streaks of flour sprinkled the guy’s brows and forehead.

Noya was about to ask if the guy needed something from him when he said, „Extinguish my eyes, I’ll go on seeing you.“

…Okay, _what_.

„Seal my ears, I’ll go on hearing you.“

His, his voice was kind of deep, but what in the ever-loving fuck was he even saying…

„And without feet I can find my path to you.“

What… What…

„And without a mouth I can invoke your name.“

How, how was this voice so soothing? Something like a gasp rose up in Noya’s chest, but it got caught in whatever was making his throat feel so tight and just… he…

„Break off my arms, I’ll take hold of you.“

The guy gripped his wrist a little tighter and Noya thought _yes, what, yes, okay, yes, what_ …

„With my heart as with a hand.“

Noya thought, maybe Noya was kind of swaying closer to him, like a moth chasing the moonlight, but he, he didn’t even know what that meant, he just stared at those lips moving, shaping those words…

„Stop my heart, and my brain will start to beat.“

And Noya felt that beat vibrating deep in his bones, and those eyes were really open, weren’t they, and…

„And if you-“ The guy shrieked, jumped and released Noya’s wrist in one go.

Noya looked at his abandoned wrist. It was bent downwards with an open coffee cup in his hand that was still quite liberally spilling hot coffee all over the guy’s apron and floor.

That wrist turned upwards, saving about 10% of his caramel latte. Noya’s eyes wandered from the coffee puddle on the floor to the gigantic stain on the guy’s apron to the shocked expression on the face of-

Laughter exploded out of the guy’s chest like a hand grenade and shivered up Noya’s spine, overtook the blood vessels in Noya’s face and set his head on fire. It was unexpectedly loud and genuine. Oh, Noya _liked_ it when people laughed like that, like they had nothing to hide and he, this man had just quoted some poem and _what_ -

Noya stood thunderstruck with a flaming face and pounding heart as the guy rubbed at his neck. „I’m sorry, I, I suppose that’s what I get for trying to convince you to give love poetry a chance. I’m a closeted romantic, or, ah, well- I guess not so closeted anymore and, and a sucker for poetry in general, I couldn’t help myself when I heard you complain to your friend.“

The man looked at him and smiled. That smile hit Noya right in the solar plexus, he was reeling from the impact and, and the poem, this guy had quoted a poem? At Noya? Like, a _love_ poem?

The smile became subdued and oh, Noya should say something, he should! So he opened his mouth and out came, „Gnnh.“

The guy was silent, dropped his eyes to the floor. He cleared his throat as he swiftly pulled a towel from the pocket in his apron and laid it down on the tiles. „I, I’m sorry for the mess and for making you drop your coffee. I’ll get you a new one, what did you have?“ 

And that wasn’t right, was it, because it had been Noya who had dumped his coffee on _him_ , and it had been nearly piping hot, and wasn’t he hurt?

The man’s eyes flittered from the floor to Noya’s face, to the counter, to the side. He hunched his shoulders a hair’s breadth. Noya could watch from his front row seat as an embarrassed flush invaded his face. No, no, no, there was no need for embarrassment, although _fuck_ , was it attractive when that man blushed, and out of _nowhere_ Noya got the most vivid image of the man spread across his sheets with his knees nearly touching his ears and shaking, cheeks blooming in a deep red as Noya sank into him and okay, now Noya was nursing a semi in a coffee shop, how had this situation derailed so quickly!

Kiyoko’s voice almost made him pee himself in surprise. „He had a caramel latte with four espresso shots.“

The guy looked at her, glanced back to Noya, then nodded. „Okay, just, just a second, please.“

As he disappeared from view, Noya felt Kiyoko’s small hand rest on his shoulder blade and her voice next to his ear. „Breathe, you’re making him uncomfortable.“

Noya wanted to tell her that he was fucking doing his best here and only wheezed. It was okay, though, it was alright, he just needed to relax a little. When the guy came back, Noya would just beam at him, return to his charming self and tell him that it was alright, that he’d just been surprised and that he hadn’t minded that small presentation, that in fact he’d, that it had been really, it, it just had been-

The man emerged from behind the serving counter again with a coffee cup and a paper bag in his hand. His face shone lobster red and Noya just wanted to scream at this man’s face how breathtakingly _beautiful_ he was, that his words were beautiful, that his eyes were beautiful, that the flour in his face was beautiful, that the fucking poem had been beautiful and that Noya could have never suspected that there was a person alive in this world who could exude beauty with every fibre of his being.

„There you go,“ the guy said with his soothing voice, and he even attempted a strained smile. But there was nothing, Noya couldn’t respond anything to his kindness, he was stuck in an internal freak out vortex. 

Kiyoko finally attempted to salvage this burning car wreck of a situation. She offered to take the food, which the guy handed her gratefully. After she peeped into the paper bag, Kiyoko smiled and said: „We love your donuts, they are truly delicious. I have to get one every time I come here. It wasn’t necessary to give these to us, but thank you very much for your kindness.“

So he was beautiful _and_ generous, somebody bless this guy’s soul immediately.

The man nodded quickly at her. „It was the least I could do after ruining your morning.“ He squatted down on the floor to pick up the soaked dish towel. This was it, this was the only chance Noya had to tell him that, contrary to the man’s belief, he’d just had the most perfect morning, because he’d met Beautiful Man, and Beautiful Man had recited a poem for him that hadn’t sucked, because he wanted to convince Noya that this thing he disliked was actually a nice thing, and who did that, who did something so incredibly weird and cute to somebody they’d never met?

The guy stood up, cradling the coffee dripping kitchen towel in his hands. Noya’s breath stuttered against all those clogged up words in his throat, because _he_ had done that, the guy right in front of him. Something so wonderful and strange. Noya needed to let him know that there was no need for all of that regret growing on his face like a fungus!

But he could only open his mouth and say, „Nnngh.“

The guy looked at Noya’s chin, eyes distant as he mumbled, „I’m really sorry.“

Then there was just the door to the kitchen swinging in its hinges, and Beautiful Man was gone.

All of the words caught in Noya’s throat puffed out into nothingness. He stared at the paper cup in his hand, almost as empty as his head. 

Kiyoko plucked that cup out of his fingers and replaced it with the one that the guy had made. It was full, it was warm. Noya let himself be steered out of the coffee bar by Kiyoko’s capable arm.

Once the glass door creaked closed behind them, they started walking. The sun shone, but the February cold bit at Noya’s exposed fingers, so he wrapped both of his hands around the cup. He should really invest in some gloves.

They were almost at the campus when Noya asked, „Kiyoko-Chan, what in the fuck just happened?“ 

„I believe you had a stroke while a confectionist recited a love poem to you,“ she responded.

Noya looked at her wide-eyed as she demolished one of the donuts they had been gifted in four bites. It was apple green and had the face of a frog on it with a stuck out tongue.

„He, he’s a confectionist?“ he stammered. An image of Beautiful Man’s flour dusted face manifested in Noya’s mind. He started stroking the warm paper of his cup with his thumb. „How do you know?“

Kiyoko shrugged her shoulders. „I’m not sure, but I’ve seen him stock up the baked goods in the morning. He’s usually managed to cover himself in one or two baking ingredients by then, so I assume he’s involved in making them.“

There was a crinkle as Kiyoko handed him the other donut. It was the same she had bought, the one covered in chocolate with the face of a bear.

„Is it okay if I keep the third one for Ryuu?“ she asked with a smile. Noya nodded.

They slowly walked up the steps into their faculty building as it hit Noya. He scrambled for his phone and thumbed into a search engine. How did it start, something about eyes? Close my eyes and, and I’ll see you, shut my ears something something… God, he needed to _know_ , Beautiful Confectionist hadn’t even finished reciting the poem for him, he needed to know how it ended!

Noya almost dropped his phone when Kiyoko touched his arm. „This is your floor, Noya-Kun,“ she announced with such a knowing glance at his phone that Noya felt deeply exposed.

„Ah, it is!“ he exclaimed, „Okay, see you later, Kiyoko-Chan, don’t make anybody break down in class again!“ He waved at her and jogged all the way to his seminar room. Once he arrived, Noya threw himself into the next available seat and dug his phone out again.

After several search attempts, he found something that looked like a hit. Noya clicked the link and then glanced at his coffee. He needed to prepare himself for this. So he took a few sips of his luke-warm beverage and picked up the donut. The bear’s ears were indicated by two small mounds of dough, and its face winked shamelessly at Noya. There was the tiniest of hearts smeared next to the winking eye.

Noya took a bite. The donut was not only covered in chocolate, but also filled with it. The taste was cozy, comforting. With the flavor of molten chocolate on his tongue, Noya picked up his phone again. He read.

> Extinguish my eyes, I’ll go on seeing you.  
>  Seal my ears, I’ll go on hearing you.  
>  And without feet I can find my path to you,  
>  Without a mouth I can invoke your name.  
>  Break off my arms, I’ll take hold of you  
>  With my heart as with a hand.  
>  Stop my heart, and my brain will start to beat.  
>  And if you consume my brain with fire,  
>  I’ll feel you burn in every drop of my blood.

Noya could feel a hot flush shooting up his face again. That was straight up obsession. Or maybe devotion? Devotion to the point where you would give up your own self and for your lover, you’d do it gladly. But it sounded almost _threatening_ , like, no matter what you do to me, I’ll continue to love you.

So this was kind of creepy? It was totally different to how Noya had felt about it when Beautiful Confectionist had recited it for him. It had been intense, but also… gentle. Sincere.

Mechanically, Noya fished out his notebook when Yuasa-Sensei came through the door. He didn’t question himself when he started to copy the poem on the first available page. His lips traced the shape of the words as he put them to paper. Noya wondered what the man thought of this poem. Did he think it was obsessive? Was that what love felt like to him? Was it what he _wanted_ it to feel like?

Noya bit his lip. Out of all the stupid poems, why did he chose _this_ one to try and convince Noya that love poems were cool?

Probably he should just ask him. Right, Noya should just go back to the coffee shop and ask Beautiful Man what he liked about this poem. While there, he could also tell him to just delete Noya’s reaction to his recital from his brain, and maybe the guy would laugh at Noya’s wit then. And maybe they would talk a little, and Noya could finally tell him that he was just so beautiful.

His eyes traced the last line of the poem drying in his notebook. Yuasa-Sensei greeted the class, and Noya smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a very self-indulgent coffee shop AU. It's already finished, just too long to be posted in one go, so I divided it up into chapters.
> 
> Although I cannot stress how utterly self-indulgent this is, I also hope that you enjoy it. Thank you very much for reading this far, I hope that you'll stick around for more!


	2. 2

One thing about Noya was that he was impatient. If he wanted something, he wanted it immediately. So did he wait until at least the next day like a reasonable person before approaching Beautiful Confectionist? Nope.

Noya’s thoughts circled around his eyes and his blush and his laugh throughout the entire class. It demanded all his brainpower. At the end of class, he had no new notes on poetry, but a really cool looking garland doodle of interweaving donuts and volleyballs. So technically a win. And also, who was he to resist all those fantasies that just kept piling on top of each other? It didn’t matter if it started out with something innocent like asking him about the poem, his thoughts would eventually derail into images of the man in his bed, on his knees, fisting the sheets, gasping for breath, looking at Noya, _begging_.

God, he was driving himself insane, and he didn’t even know the man’s name. That thought creeped Noya out a little bit, so he told himself very firmly to stop with the fantasies right this instant. 

That was why on that same day, Noya returned to the coffee shop at lunch time. He was determined to have an actual conversation with Beautiful Man and act like a human being throughout. He had done that before, so Noya totally got this in the bag.

Unsurprisingly, the place was quite packed. Students and workers stuffed their faces with bagels and sandwiches on their way out. Did Beautiful Confectionist make those, too? The grin on Noya’s face came almost instinctively.

Noya walked up to the serving counter and tried to get the attention of one of the baristas. Finally, one of them glanced his way and came over. The expression on his face was unimpressed, but at least he tried to put some cheer into his voice when he asked, „Hey, can I help you with anything?“

Noya beamed at him and projected as much _I am friendly, please help me out_ as he could. „Yes! I was wondering if one of your bakers was still working?“

The barista sized him up from head to toe. 

…Okay? Noya wasn’t sure what about him warranted such scrutiny, but he’d let it slide. „Which one?“ the barista finally asked.

„That’s exactly it,“ Noya replied, „I don’t know his name, but I met him this morning. He was really tall and had long, dark hair-“ and his voice was so deep it hummed in the pit of your stomach and, gah „-There was something I wanted to ask him. Is he still working?“

The barista looked down at him, his eyes almost bored. It fucking irked Noya. Did this guy have a problem? „I’m sorry, but I can’t give out any personal information of our employees.“

Noya frowned. „But… that’s not personal information, though. I’m just asking whether he’s working right now and if maybe I can talk to him.“

„You don’t know his name?“ the barista asked.

„No,“ Noya said slowly, „I just told you that I met him this morning.“

„I’m sorry, but I can’t give out information about the work schedules of our employees,“ the barista said. Then he _smirked_ , what the-.

„Do you have a problem with me?“ Noya asked.

„Not particularly,“ the guy drawled, „If you don’t have a problem with me, I don’t have a problem with you.“ The smirk widened. „Shorty.“

Noya shot halfway over the counter and at the barista’s throat in under two seconds. „What did you just call me?!“

The barista started to laugh and put up his hands. Noya wasn’t having any of his bullshit, though, he was gonna-

The door to the kitchen swung open and Beautiful Man stood there holding an apron. Holy _shit_ , he was even more beautiful than Noya had remembered. Had his lips been that full and kissable this morning, too? Fucking hell, Noya felt like he’d _missed_ him, which was ridiculous because he technically hadn’t really met him yet and stop the presses, the man was wearing his hair all the way up in a man bun! Noya already knew that this was gonna fuel up his fantasies big time, but what was he thinking, Noya didn’t really have those anymore.

A smile broke out on Noya’s face. He opened his mouth to hurl a probably too loud greeting at the guy and made it halfway to „Hel-“, but then he saw his face. Closed off, embarrassed. Distant. Noya’s „-lo!“ bounced right off the closing kitchen door.

Noya wasn’t sure what had just happened, but it wasn’t good.

He turned his eyes to the barista. The same unimpressed face stared back at him. Noya’s gaze darted to his own hand clutching the barista’s shirt. He had yanked at it so forcefully that the collar was completely stretched out. Slowly, Noya released the shirt and slid off the counter. He pressed his lips together. So that had probably left a shit impression on Beautiful Man.

„Seems to me like he doesn’t want to talk to you,“ the barista supplied. 

Noya’s face tightened, but he kept it together. Barista Asshole continued, „Look, we have a really strict policy here concerning employee related info. A while back, we had some nasty shit going on with somebody that was stalking one of our colleagues. So we’re not giving out any names, work schedules, or anything. If you want to get to know anything about him, you have to ask him yourself.“

The smirk made a comeback, and the barista had the _audacity_ to console Noya with a pat on the shoulder. „Although it seems to me that that’s a lost cause.“

It took everything in Noya not to punch this guy in the face. Instead of following his heart’s wish, though, he squeezed out from between clenched teeth, „Thanks. Bye.“ Then he left.

Noya was fuming all the way back to campus. Did this guy have to be such an asshole? Such a provocative asshole that deserved everything that was coming his way? If he hadn’t provoked Noya like that Beautiful Confectionist wouldn’t think he was a bully. Noya almost ran into a garbage can. Fuck, Beautiful Guy thought he was a bully now! Judging by his cold face, he wasn’t really into bad guys. Not that Noya was a bad guy, he just had zero impulse control.

He took a deep breath. Freaking out wasn’t really his style, and it was okay, really, Noya could work with this. He just needed to talk to Beautiful Man once to apologize and to ask him about the poem. That was it, they didn’t need to become friends or anything.

Except for the part where Noya maybe _did_ want to become friends with him and watch Captain Tsubasa together and stroke every inch of his body with his tongue, but-

He clenched his hands together. Okay, so he had absolutely no clue about what the fuck was going on with him right now. But he knew that it had something do with Beautiful Man and his poem, and Noya would not rest until he had unraveled this clusterfuck. 

Turned out that that was more difficult than Noya thought.

Although Beautiful Bun was apparently working most mornings, there was only a very small window of opportunity in which Noya could actually talk to him. That was during tray swaps when the confectionist would display freshly baked goods in the glass case. 

That actually wouldn’t be so bad, if the coffee shop guests wouldn’t swarm to the windows like flies on a dead cat, sticking to the glass and gushing over which cake they were going to buy today. There was honest to God _shoving_. Ruthless volleyball practice had given Noya quite the muscles, but even his upper body strength couldn’t withstand the collective scramble that would break out when fresh trays were whipped out.

So most of the time, Beautiful Bun would replace the trays without even seeing Noya. There were, however, exactly two times where he _did_ see Noya. The smile on Noya’s face had been instant, because _hello_ and _beautiful_ and _please talk to me_. The blush on Beautiful Man’s face had also been instant, as had been his hasty retreat into the kitchen.

And that was shit. Because how else was Noya going to talk to him? If he wasn’t able to head the guy off during the tray swaps? He apparently remained in the kitchen for however long his shift was. And yep, Noya had totally hung out at the coffee bar for four hours to see if Beautiful Bun would show up again, but he had also done his Linguistics II homework while there, so it was okay.

Noya burnt his tongue on a black tea on the freezing street outside the coffee shop, because he’d gotten sick of all those caramel lattes. For a _week_ he’d been trying to talk to Beautiful Man, to get his attention and keep it, but nothing. Just minimal eye contact and some admittedly very cute blushes, but Noya wanted more, he wanted an actual conversation, he wanted answers, he was _dying_ to know if Beautiful man thought that Basho was overrated or not.

Wrecking his brains over this, Noya almost kicked a cat that crossed his path. He stumbled backwards, avoided spilling hot tea all over the frozen twigs that were his fingers. Noya congratulated himself on his dexterity and apologized to the cat, but the creature didn’t acknowledge him. It slinked into an alley, low to the ground and ears perked like it was on the hunt. Two more cats followed. And then another one. Noya curiously peered into the alley the cats had wriggled into, past some garbage cans.

Oh. Noya froze in his tracks. There he was, the object of his obsession-possession-whatever. His hair was in a half bun again, not like the past few days where he had kept it mostly up. Some of the hair strands were caught in an enormous scarf wrapped around his throat, but a few were resting on the wool, their tips white, like he had dipped them in flour or powdered sugar. It made Noya wonder if he smelled sweet and warm. Like the scent that wafted from an open bakery window early in the morning.

The cats had huddled around Beautiful Man and focused on a folded up wax paper in his hand. Some of them meowed softly as he unwrapped it, their tiny breaths fogging in front of them. With his free hand, he peeled a slice of what was probably salmon? From the paper and laid it on the concrete. The cats shouldered each other around a bit and gobbled it up quickly, meowed at Beautiful Man for another slice when they were finished, their eyes darting from his face to the paper. Noya, for his part, didn’t really look at anything else but Beautiful Man’s face. Feeding those cats made him almost radiate with contentment, a quiet smile tucked on his face like it belonged there. And maybe that radiation was nuclear in nature, because it seemed to break through Noya’s skin, warm up his bones, rearrange his cells from the foundation up. Change him forever.

Beautiful Bun took another slice as a brave feline approached his hand. It sniffed at the fish like it was a car it was considering to buy. Beautiful Man was basically petrified, staring at the cat as if he was attempting to mind control it. Then the cat gently bit into the fish, dropped it to the ground where it proceeded to tear into it. Noya’s obsession kept his hand where it was, and when the cat raised its head again, it bumped it affectionately against Beautiful Bun’s fingers. The smile on his face grew warmer as those digits scratched the cat’s throat expertly. 

Noya looked at that smile and there was, there was just this feeling. A, a desire, a _craving_ , like his continued existence demanded something from him, but Noya just, he didn’t know _what_. It was there and it was relentless, it, it didn’t hurt now, but Noya knew it was going to when he failed to deliver. It didn’t stop, like the beating of a drum, alongside his heart, in his veins and it just shot right into Noya’s head: _I’ll feel you burn in every drop of my blood_.

A low voice carried over from the steps of the coffee shop’s backdoor.

„Yes,“ Beautiful Man hummed, ruffling the cat’s cheek, „You’re a beautiful one, aren’t you? Just gorgeous.“

And Noya looked at his face warm with happiness and thought _Yes, yes, you are, just so beautiful, please_ and didn’t know why.

The cat chose that moment to lick traces of fish from Beautiful Bun’s fingers. Noya could hear the giddy squealing sound emerging from the back of Beautiful Man’s throat from all the way past the garbage cans.

And it was just fucking cute, okay? So Noya couldn’t help but laugh at that and totally ruin a perfect moment in the process.

Beautiful Man yelled, scared witless by the sudden laughter, which in turn scared the cats that all scrambled around and over each other to get the hell out. Noya wasn’t sure whether it was the feline commotion or the lingering shock, but Beautiful Bun lost his balance. He fell backwards and struck his head against the brick wall behind him. Noya gasped and now only thought _shit shit shit_.

„Hi,“ he said and wanted to slap himself, „I scared those cats away, and I scared you, oh my God, are you okay, like there was totally a thunk and I’m totally not creeping on you behind heaps of garbage, I’m actually a sane person-“

„It’s okay, i-it doesn’t hurt,“ Beautiful Man thankfully interrupted Noya’s verbal train wreck. The blush on his face was fierce, but his eyes were locked on Noya’s. One hand was pressed against the back of his head and the other…

The other hand sketched a wave into the air as he said, „Hello.“

And then he bolted. Literally sprang up onto his feet and burst through the back door, and then Noya was alone.

Something in him wanted to cry. Or maybe that was just Noya, Noya wanted to fucking cry. He stared at the door that had banged back into its frame, then the abandoned wax paper with the fish. Noya walked the few meters towards it and carefully picked up the rest of the salmon. Although it wasn’t particularly rat-proof, Noya thought that putting the fish on the lid of a garbage can might be better than just letting it rot on the ground.

Slowly, he trotted back to the main street. The winter air had cooled down Noya’s previously piping hot tea enough for him to drink it in large gulps.

So why was Noya so uncool? He was acting like a fucking fool, or, or a _buffoon_. Noya just didn’t start blabbering at people unless he was super excited, and he didn’t stand there gaping at them. Gaping was rude! Noya was not rude!

God, this stupid feeling didn’t go away, either. It was even stronger now, like he just _wanted_ something so incredibly bad, and it had been right there, but it had slipped his grasp and he craved it all the more for it. But what the fuck did he even _want_? And what was wrong with Beautiful Man, quoting love poetry at unsuspecting coffee shop guests? Feeding stray cats in a back alley? Did he have a fairy godmother, too?

Noya wanted to be mean about it, because he was pissed at himself for messing up his chance again. But the truth was he couldn’t keep making fun of Beautiful Bun’s kindness to animals without looking like a huge asshole, so he stopped.

His sigh could have cracked the concrete staircase with how loud it was. For a week, this shit had been going on, and Noya only got more confused every time he saw Beautiful Man. Feeling displeased with whatever the hell was happening, Noya unlocked the door to his shared apartment.

He toed of his running shoes, didn’t bother to announce his presence to anybody, because nobody else was home. Still in his track top and bottoms, he trudged past his room and flopped down on their couch. He picked at a hole in his jogging pants mournfully. It had been a moment of self-consciousness when he had decided to get his breakfast at the end of his track. Drip and Drop’s staff had started to recognize him, what with him coming in daily for seven days straight, and there was this constant grin plastered to Barista Asshole’s face whenever he handed Noya his coffee. So Noya had thought he could maybe circumvent this condescending abuse by pretending he was just here to get his breakfast after a run. But when he had seen Barista Asshole’s face as he had passed him that same bear donut he’d gotten nearly every time he came there, Noya knew his plan hadn’t worked. 

He sighed again. This wasn’t _like_ him, why would he care what some barista bully thought of him? Noya had stopped feeling self-conscious about anything when he was, like, nine. So what if he came to a coffee shop in hopes of talking to somebody that seemed like a nice person? There was nothing wrong with that. 

Noya opened the paper bag still clenched in his hand. He took out the donut, ran his tongue along the chocolate glazing, letting it melt on the tip. It was unfair how insanely good it tasted. Why did this almost feel like torture? Noya bit savagely into the donut, tearing the friendly bear face right in two. Maybe he should just change his name into ‚dumbass‘.

Noya dug out his phone from under his ass and thumbed it open. He meant to distract himself with some videos of players receiving volleyballs with their faces or crotch, but ended up opening his browser. It took exactly two thumb movements to open a recently created bookmark. Noya’s eyes skimmed over the words. At this point, he didn’t read the poem anymore, because all of the words were burnt into his frontal lobe. He just looked at it. Looked at the signs, their ebb and flow, their swirls and strokes. Then, he opened another bookmark. The same words appeared, but in their original language. The lines of verse echoed in Noya’s head as his eyes followed the senseless Latin letters. 

He reached the last line, his favorite, the one that had popped into his head earlier: _so werd ich dich auf meinem Blute tragen_. Noya tried to imagine what it sounded like in German, but he simply had no clue. 

The phrase pulsing in his mind, he switched back to the Japanese translation and copied the name of the author at the bottom of the poem, pasted it into the search bar. A Wikipedia article was the first one to pop up. Rainer Maria Rilke, and there was just a noise with a lot of r’s and a’s in Noya’s head, was an Austrian poet. He wrote lots and lots of poetry, and his correspondence with others lyricists was so vast that it was considered an important part of his work, what the fuck. Noya wondered if people would one day look at the LINE conversation full of eggplants and volleyballs he had with Ryuu and consider it important to his pro career.

Mildly interested, Noya scrolled down. His childhood was horrible, because his mother pretended he was a girl to deal with the infant death of her first daughter. She apparently continued to do so until Rilke was six years old. Off to a great start. While it was raising Noya’s interest, he could tell that this wasn’t really what he was after. He went back to the search engine and put the first line of the poem behind Rilke’s name in the search bar. After some clicks, he found the publication information. Apparently a book published as part of a cycle of poems, titled Stunden-Buch. Noya was gobsmacked. People wrote _cycles of poems_?

Not having reached the end of his Google skills, Noya pasted in Stunden-Buch and the first line of the poem. And then there it was, Das Buch von der Pilgerschaft, originated 1901, published 1905 as part of Stunden-Buch, a book about… prayers? No, wait, a Stunden-Buch was apparently a book of prayers in German, Rilke’s poems were… apparently religious poems. Extinguish My Eyes was a religious poem. Not a poem about obsessive love, but about divine devotion and faith.

Noya lowered his phone. He chewed on the sweet, chocolatey dough. That, that didn’t sit right with him. A poem about _faith_? What did that have to do with love poetry? And hadn’t Beautiful Confectionist said that- Well, he hadn’t explicitly _said_ that the recited poem was a love poem, but why would he quote anything _but_ a love poem if he wanted to convince Noya that love poetry didn’t suck? Was Beautiful Man Christian? Had this been an overly complicated attempt to get Noya to join his Bible study group?

Noya licked his lips, the bear donut warming his stomach from the inside. He yawned. There was something next to the donut, something heavy and hard. Like disappointment. He was disappointed that the poem he’d been reading and memorizing for a week was not actually a love poem. What the fuck.

He huffed, turned on his side. He didn’t know what to do with this jumbled up mess inside of him. Some extra sleep would probably do him good.

It didn’t. Caffeine and sugar made for horrible slumber companions. They had the tendency to knock Noya out cold before dragging him back to the waking world again. After some fits of this not at all restful sleep, Noya dozed on the couch, every once in a while waking with a start and checking whether he had drooled on himself.

It was peaceful. That was good, at least some of the time. 

Noya opened his eyes. He wasn’t a sleepwalker, but moved around in his sleep enough that he wasn’t particularly surprised about being on the floor. Maybe kneeling on all fours was a little weird, but, meh. Stranger things had happened.

„Here,“ a soothing voice said. Noya raised his head, looked at Beautiful Man crouched in front of him. His smile was so gentle, Noya wanted to wrap himself up in it like a blanket. He was warm, everything was so warm. 

„Here,“ Beautiful Man repeated, and then Noya registered the hand right in front of his face. The fingers dipped in molten chocolate.

He flicked his tongue against one of the tips, tasted comfort and sweetness. Then he started to lick along the length of it, determined, cleaning them as best as he could, because that’s what Beautiful Man wanted. Noya was going to give him exactly what he wanted.

There was nothing better than witnessing the happy smile unfolding on Beautiful Man’s face. Or maybe there was, because then he reached out, ran his free hand softly along the side of Noya’s face and muttered, „Yes, such a gorgeous boy. Such a good, good boy.“

Noya was, wasn’t he? He was just so good, sucking this man’s fingers so clean. It was important that Beautiful Bun knew that, that Noya would do this for him, would be so good to him. 

He put extra effort into licking every trace of chocolate from the last finger. Just as he had finished, Beautiful Man pressed all four of them back into his mouth. Noya moaned around them, mouth stretched open. His face was heating as Beautiful Man unzipped his fly and revealed a large bulge underneath.

His eyes were soft, but there was a wicked glint in them as he hummed, „Such a gorgeous boy. You deserve a treat, don’t you?“

And Noya _did_ , he’d been so patient, so good, he wanted it so much. He sucked hard on those fingers, heard a chuckle in response. His eyes tracked every movement while Beautiful Man pulled down his shorts.

And then he was awake. Staring at the ceiling with a weeping hard-on in his pants. Noya huffed, thought about crying, decided against it. Stuffed his hand down his pants.

He just didn’t think about it, couldn’t afford to, he only wanted to chase that dream, that warmth, those feelings. He wrapped his hand around his dick, hissed at how sensitive it was. It wouldn’t take long. His hand reached up, crammed four of his fingers into his mouth. He thumbed the head of his wet cock, shivered as the voice in his head repeated: _Yes, such a gorgeous boy. Such a good, good boy_.

Noya panted, his breath squeezed out in short bursts past his fingers. The man was right there, in front of him, pulling his cock out for Noya. It was so thick, Noya wasn’t sure whether he’d be able to take it all, but then he did, it was filling him up, so hot and fucking huge, and his man stroked Noya’s cheek with his thumb soothingly while he pounded into him. Noya moaned, spit slipping out from between his fingers, hand jerking himself roughly, hole desperately squeezing around an imagined cock. And then Noya was still on his back, but his man was riding him, bent over Noya, face so close to his own as he bounced up and down on his cock, one hand pushing Noya’s wrists together, the other shoving its fingers into Noya’s mouth, down his throat and eyes glued to Noya’s face, swollen lips stretched into a helpless smile as he moaned: _Noya-Kun, I want you so much_.

His orgasm hit him like a train, he groaned against his fingers, dug his heels in, fucked up into his fist. The waves kept cresting and he whimpered, watched his cock spatter his cum over his shirt and hand, it wasn’t enough, he wanted more, took his fingers out of his mouth and shoved two into his ass, gasped and twitched around them as his cock spurted again and again.

Noya kept pressing his fingers into himself and only pulled them out as the last sparks fizzled away. He was panting hard. His face felt like it was burning. Noya peered at the mess on his shirt. Well, he had to wash it anyway. His head fell back onto the couch.

He sighed. So apparently not fantasizing about Beautiful Man was not an option. Noya didn’t really make it a habit to masturbate to unsuspecting people, but that had been one hot dream, and he couldn’t really be blamed for that, could he? There was still the matter of not actually really knowing the guy’s name, but… it was kind of difficult to make himself feel bad about that right after such a nice orgasm.

Noya pouted. He knew he had the hots for Beautiful Bun, and now he knew he _definitely_ wanted to fuck him. But that didn’t really help him, there was no new information to be gathered from this. Weren’t dreams supposed to tell you shit about your feelings? The only thing Noya got from this was that he wanted Beautiful Bun to rough him up. Probably also to rough Beautiful Man up in turn.

Noya sat up and thought _I need some help with this shit. Also, a shower_.

He walked into the bathroom, thumbed into their Sailor Starlights chat with his clean hand and wrote:

_Im calling on my besties to hlpeme out_  
Betsies  
Help 

Then he set his phone down on their washing machine. He removed his clothes, threw them into every which corner, stepped into the shower. The anti-slip stickers in the form of kamaboko never failed to make him smile. 

He turned on the faucet. Their landlord had thankfully upgraded their boiler last year, so the water was at least warm as it ran down his hair, into his ears. But it wasn’t enough to drown out this faded echo, just a whisper now, caught in the fine hair of his eardrum.

_Such a good, good boy._


	3. 3

Noya hadn’t even toweled himself half dry, when he picked up his phone again. He smiled at Ryuu’s message.

_Betsy no 1 is ready yo. What up?_

Noya knew he didn’t really have much time working as a personal trainer, so he appreciated it when Ryuu took the time to answer him so quickly. Ah, what a nice bro he had.

_There’s this guy I met at Drip an Drop_

He was about to elaborate more on the doe-like eyes and silk spun hair of his object of obsession, but Ryuu interrupted him.

_Oh right, that dude that quoted a love poem at you? lmao  
Betsy no 2 filled me in on everything_

Kiyoko, the tattletale, just replied:

_:)_

Noya huffed, then gasped at Ryuu’s outrageous comment materializing on his screen:

_L A M E_

He pounded into his phone.

_How dare you??? He recited a creepy, obsessed poem at me how dare you say it was lame???_

Ryuu’s response was immediate.

_No man, you lol  
You didn’t say anything and just stared at him until the guy got the uncomfortable he fled  
I’m sorry but that’s l a m e  
Gotta keep it real bro_

Noya sighed and sent a gif of what he thought was a K-pop singer lying face down on a bench and crying. Then he picked up the towel again and rubbed it over any wet patches. Stark naked, he left the bathroom and went into his room.

Their 2K apartment with the open kitchen and tiny living room corner was kinda small for two people and still pretty expensive, but Noya liked it anyway. It was in Bunkyo, pretty close to UTokyo, and nestled in between some company buildings. He especially liked the fact that his window pointed towards a huge digital billboard. It was basically the reason why he didn’t have to arm wrestle Ryuu for it, his bestie actually preferred the view of the backyard to the ever changing pictures. But for Noya, it reminded him a little of a night light projector he had as a kid, with the moving images painting shades and hues across his walls and ceiling. It was kind of comforting, actually.

It also meant he could dance around his room bare ass naked with wide open curtains and nobody gave a shit.

Noya threw on some fresh shorts, already worn pants that smelled fine and a shirt from his closet which he couldn’t figure was washed or not, but also smelled fine. After he flung himself on his bed, he thumbed the chat open again.

_Ah my dude don’t cry_ , was Ryuu’s response.  
_You just gotta talk to him man to man and he’ll realize that you can actually speak Japanese and it’ll just go from there ya know  
You wanna bang him?_

_I think he might_ , Kiyoko chimed in.  
_Do you require our expertise in order for you to seduce him?_

_We’re totes gonna give you the best banging advice man  
I’m all in for you get some D_

And so was Noya, if that dream was any indication. He grinned and started typing.

_Yes please help me get the D I am lost  
I saw him today feeding stray cats and startled him so bad he hit his head and ran away  
I just wanted to talk to him and ended up giving him a concussion  
:(_

His friends’ answers came at the same time.

_What so he a princess? Did he recite a poem for those cats too?_

_Did you apologize to him?_

Noya’s fingers flew over the screen.

_I wanted to but he ran away!!  
And every time I try to talk to him he either doesn’t see me or runs away_

_What’s wrong with princess-chan? he too high up in his tower to talk to the peasants?_

_I think he is just embarrassed. It seemed to me that he was going pretty far out of his comfort zone when he quoted the poem to Noya-Kun. When he didn’t react, confectionist-San proceeded to have a meltdown. My guess is that he still feels embarrassed about that._

_Oh okay. Noya going for the shy ones now?  
Write him a note then lol?_

Noya raised his eyebrows.

_A note?_

_Yeah man like sorry I gave you a concussion but I want to ride your D into the sunset u down for that  
Or better yet  
A letter  
If he quoted a love poem at you he’s probably all over getting perfumed letters from secret admirers lmao_

_A letter might be overdoing it a little, but I think the note could be a good idea. That way you can apologize to him and convey your interest, but he decides whether he wants to respond to you or not. It will probably make him feel more comfortable with it._

Ryuu sent a gif of himself doing a proud thumbs up. Noya remembered the day they had spent creating reaction gifs for Ryuu fondly. He set down his phone. A note, huh? Kiyoko was probably right, it would take the pressure from Beautiful Bun to talk face-to-face with him. Although it actually didn’t seem to Noya that Beautiful Bun had a problem with that. He seemed pretty comfortable talking to his co-workers. Apparently, it was talking to _Noya_ face-to-face that was the issue here.

Whatever, a note was his best bet right now.

_So that idea sounds alright  
I think I’ll do that actually  
thank you!!!_

And he sent them a gif of the Sailor Starlights looking all determined with wind blowing through their hair.

Tossing his phone on his bed, Noya went about hunting for his backpack. Once he found it next to a pile of smelly training shirts, he fished out his notebook and began to jot down some ideas.

The next day found Noya in line at Drip and Drop. He shifted from foot to foot, kept running his thumb over the ring binding of his notebook that he had clutched against his side. His other hand ran through his hair and then stopped halfway through, because what if he messed it up? That would be _awful_.

Noya dropped his hand and grit his teeth. Was he nervous? Noya didn’t really do nervous, hadn’t done it since trying out for the volleyball scholarship. So he probably wasn’t nervous, he was just… energetic. Excited.

Yes, he was excited. He was _psyched_ to give his note to Beautiful Man. Well, probably not Beautiful Man directly, since he avoided Noya like the plague. But one of his co-workers that would hopefully deliver the note to him? That was sure to work.

His gaze fell on his notebook. He thought about the piece of paper tugged inside it, where his sweaty hand couldn’t reach it. Maybe he should read it again? Just one more time, to make sure there were no spelling mistakes. Not that he didn’t trust Kiyoko’s proofreading, just… he’d just check again.

Noya flipped his notebook open at the page marked with a paperclip. There was his note, in as neat a handwriting as he could manage. He read through it again.

_Hey!  
My name is Nishinoya Yuu. I’m the person that startled you so badly when you were feeding the stray cats at the back door yesterday. It looked like you kind of hurt yourself, so I just wanted to check in with you whether you’re okay. I’m really sorry for frightening you, I didn’t mean to!  
I hope you still remember this: I’m also the same person you quoted that poem to. I did some research on it and would love to talk about some of the stuff I found out with you. You can text me at this number if you’d like:  
Thanks! And sorry!  
Nishinoya Yuu_

Noya nodded. It was okay. Maybe not the most inspired note, but it brought his point across without being too overbearing. At least, he hoped so.

„Welcome to Drip and Drop Coffe Bar, may I take your order?“

Noya’s head shot up. Oh, good, it was not the robot disguised as a human from before, but the nice gray-haired one with the mole. There was an amused tilt to the barista’s mouth. Probably because he recognized Noya from the five other times he had taken his order.

„Are you feeling adventurous again today? I can try to get my colleague to squeeze five espresso shots in that cup for you?“ the barista asked cheekily.

Noya cackled. „No thanks. Just a green tea.“

The barista punched in his order, looked at him with a raised hand. „And a donut?“ he guessed.

„Hell yeah!“ Noya grinned. „Does the one with the cat face have a filling?“

„Yes, it’s caramel.“

Oho! Noya was feeling lucky today. „I’ll take one, please.“

The barista bagged the donut and punched the order into the register at the same time. „425 yen, please!“

Noya handed him the money as the barista passed him his donut. He swallowed. „Actually, there’s one more thing.“

The guy looked at him expectantly. Noya reminded himself that he absolutely wasn’t nervous.

„Somebody works in your kitchen, pretty tall, with long, medium brown hair?“ Beautiful enough to make some ancient Greek gods jealous and get cursed forever?

The barista blinked. Then: „There might be somebody like that working here.“

„So the other day there was an incident, where he kind of like… hurt himself because of me? I totally didn’t mean to! But I startled him like a lot, and he ended up hitting his head, and I never got around to apologizing to him for the shit show I caused. He kind of ran away before I could. So I wrote him a note as an apology. Would, would you give him that note?“

Noya congratulated himself on his coolness when he removed the paper from his notebook with steady hands. The barista’s eyes were like x-ray beams, moving from Noya’s face, to the note, back to Noya’s face. 

After some consideration, he took the note from Noya’s hand and said, „I’m the Assistant Manager here. I’m telling you that, because I want you to know that I’m going to read that note before I give it to my colleague. You seem like a nice guy, but I don’t want to potentially expose him to any harassment. If I think it’s okay, I’ll give it to him. Is that okay with you?“

Noya beamed. „Yes! I figured as much. Thank you very much, I appreciate your help!“

The barista smiled back at him. „Any time.“

Noya practically skipped to the serving counter. Not even Barista Asshole’s smirk could ruin his mood now. He received his tea with a jovial „Thanks!“ and made his way towards the exit. 

His timing was perfect. Noya still had about an hour to spare before his morning classes started. What better way to spend that time than drinking his tea and eating his donut on one of the benches outside the coffee shop? From which he just happened to have an amazing view of the register and kitchen door?

Noya smiled. He was _indeed_ feeling lucky today.

Twenty minutes later, it was happening. Noya knew he was being more than obvious with his staring, but couldn’t really summon a shit. He watched as Assistant Manager took the note out of his apron and read. After about two seconds, he looked back up again. Noya frowned. Was that even enough time to read the note? He kind of doubted that the first lines were _that_ convincing?

He looked on as Assistant Manager opened the kitchen door, called out something. And then there he was, Beautiful Bun in all his beautiful glory. Noya bit down on his lip as he smiled. Beautiful Man wiped his hands on his apron, an absent smile on his face. Then Assistant Manager started talking to him, and that smile dropped quicker than a hot potato. As did Noya’s. He watched with an uneasy feeling as guilt spread over Beautiful Bun’s face. So, they were probably not talking about Noya’s note, right?

There was a back and forth. Assistant Manager’s face was just stern, while Beautiful Confectionist’s cycled through more guilt, some annoyance and then just defeat. Noya bit his lip harder. This wasn’t good, this wasn’t good at _all_. What were they _talking_ about, it couldn’t have anything do with Noya’s stupid note.

Assistant Manager made a motion with his hand, and Beautiful Bun disappeared into the kitchen. A few seconds later he returned and oh. Oh! Oh shit. _Fuck_.

Noya looked on helplessly as Beautiful Man tossed a wax paper filled with fish into the garbage that Assistant Manager was holding out for him, he watched like the biggest idiot on the planet while Assistant Manager chewed him out a little bit more, he stared at Beautiful Man’s tense back and the disappointment etched into his face. He was such a fucking dumbass with not one fucking ounce of sense in him, a dumbass that just watched as he unthinkingly ruined something nice for a kind person.

When Assistant Manager was apparently through with him, Beautiful Man just nodded and disappeared back into the kitchen. Noya didn’t stay to watch what happened to his note. He turned around and started the walk to campus.

The grip on his green tea had tightened so much that it was threatening to crumple the cup. Noya had to relax his fingers a little bit, although he would have deserved some hot tea sloshed all over himself, because of what a fucking numbskull he was. It was so fucking _obvious_ , why hadn’t he seen it coming? Of _course_ the Assistant Manager would not fucking appreciate it that one of his employees had been feeding what was probably vermin to him on their doorstep.

Noya groaned loudly. A few heads turned his way, but what did he care. The little squeal of happiness that he’d heard when that brave cat had licked Beautiful Bun’s fingers rang through his head. That had obviously been some kind of breakthrough. Probably he’d been feeding those cats for _months_ , trying to get close to them, to win their trust. And Noya had singlehandedly destroyed all of that progress. Destroyed something enjoyable for a nice man.

He wished that a bicycle would drive by and just run him over. He just felt so _awful_.

Noya was almost at his faculty building when he pulled out his phone. His thumb opened the Sailor Starlight chat and leafed through several gifs under the search terms ‚fail‘, ‚destroy‘ and ‚backfire‘. He settled on that gif where somebody threw a brick into a running washing machine, because it was just so brutal. He added to it: _I am thoughtlessly evil and must be destroyed_

His hand cramped. Noya released his renewed death grip on the crinkled tea cup, threw his head back as he downed the rest of his cold tea like it was the meanest sake. Viciously, he scrunched up the paper cup and threw it into the garbage before running up the stairs to his seminar room.

It was past ten when Noya got home from practice. His performance had been okay, but not really _good_. He’d missed a few receives that he knew he could’ve gotten if he’d jumped wider, ran faster. Some players in his team had even noticed, including their captain Makiyama and his Ryuu-substitute Tsuzuki. It had frustrated him to no end, because he _knew_ he could do better. He sighed once the door closed behind him. Just a shitty ending to a shitty day.

„I’m home!“ he shouted into their apartment.

„Welcome home!“ Ryuu shouted back from the living room corner. 

Noya just threw everything he had to the ground, then dug out the chicken curry he’d gotten on his way home. He fished for the throwaway chopsticks in the bag, because he was a lazy shit today and couldn’t be bothered to get actual ones.

With a huge sigh, he plopped down on the couch. Ryuu was watching reruns of Yusha Yoshihiko while knitting. Noya observed his fingers twirl the yarn and operate the needles as he shoveled heaps of food into his mouth. How had this son of a bitch gotten so good at knitting in just two years?

„So why do I gotta destroy you, man? I need you for the rent,“ Ryuu asked.

Noya’s reply was a groan loud enough that it made Ryuu look up from his needle work.

„I fucked it up so _bad_ , Ryuu. They banned him from feeding the cats! And he got a dressing-down from his boss!“

In between mounds of curry, Noya relayed what he’d witnessed that morning.

Ryuu’s mouth formed a perfect o. „Oh shit! I didn’t think about that!“

„Neither did I!“ Noya exclaimed.

„Well, fuck,“ Ryuu said, „Do you think he still gave your guy the note?“

„Who cares about that anymore? I completely ruined this thing that he really liked. I think he was feeding those cats basically every day, and now he can’t anymore, because I’m a dumb asshole.“

Ryuu patted his shoulder. „Don’t be so hard on yourself, kiddo. Kiyoko didn’t see it coming, either, none of us did. And who knows, maybe the manager guy will come around and let him feed those pests after all.“

„I don’t know,“ Noya mumbled, „He seemed pretty strict about it.“

There was an explosion of swords on the screen, but Noya didn’t really see it. What he _did_ see were hunched shoulders, a bitter twist to a handsome face.

„You should have seen his face,“ Noya added, „He looked really disappointed.“

When Ryuu didn’t reply, Noya turned to him. Ryuu regarded him strangely, then commented, „You really care about this.“

Noya raised his eyebrows at him. „Yeah?“ So what? _Shouldn’t_ he?

Ryuu hummed thoughtfully. „Maybe you should try talking to him again. Explain what happened, grovel at his feet, then ask for his penis.“ Ryuu wriggled his eyebrows aggressively at Noya, but he only huffed.

„I don’t know, I think it would feel kinda weird, like… not right?“ Noya shook his head. „I don’t know, man. I think I’m just gonna go to bed and forget about today.“ He picked up the empty carton and stood up.

Ryuu nodded at him, a dialed down version of the scrutinizing look from before on his face. „Okay, man. Good night.“

„G’night,“ Noya sighed. 

The trip to the trash and to the bathroom were quick. Once in his room, Noya just threw on his pj shirt and dove under the covers. He picked up his phone, thinking to maybe stream a match to ease his guilt from sucking at practice. But then he just opened the bookmark again. This time, he read the poem, from the first verse to the last. And then he read it again. And again. It felt nice, comforting, like putting on an old sweater, but there was a sour note to it now that hadn’t been there before. It twisted his mouth.

Noya’s body was tired, but his insides were churning. After he put his phone away, he watched the colorful lights bleed over and out of his walls. It wasn’t a great comfort today.

That night, Noya slept like a log and only remembered one dream. He was in his room, the light swirling around him, and Beautiful Man was in front of him. Noya opened his mouth, because there was something he should say, right? Something he needed to say, that this man needed to know. But he just shook his head at Noya, smiled at him, wrapped his arms around him. Kissed him. Noya embraced him tightly, and it was so tender and warm, their lips interlocking so softly. Noya could feel every breath coast over his cheeks, every tremor under his hands, every tiny smile pressed into his lips. He soaked it up like he was touch starved. They were so _close_.

That morning, Noya woke up with the aroma of cocoa powder in his nose and an empty ache in his chest.


	4. 4

A few days passed by in which Noya was, honest to God, moping. Fucking moping. Moping in class, moping on the couch, moping on the bus. The only times where he could pull himself together was during practice, and that was mainly due to Makiyama being brutal as fuck on them. Noya tried to keep it to a minimum at home, though, or at least confined to his room. Ryuu’s searching looks whenever he found Noya lying face down on the couch trying to scrape up enough attention to watch JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure were just getting on his nerves.

It’s not like Noya didn’t know, okay? He knew it was weird. Moping just wasn’t something he _did_ , it was outside of his repertoire. He hadn’t moped over bad grades or over Kiyoko choosing Ryuu over him or over any of his break ups. Noya was a strong believer in just getting the fuck over it. Picking himself up from the ground and just barreling forward. _That_ was him, that was how he dealt with things.

But it was not how he dealt with forcing a guy to give up feeding stray cats, apparently. 

Bad grade? Whelp, should have probably studied harder. Kiyoko not interested in him? What are you gonna do, she’s got her own mind. People breaking up with him? Well, they gotta do what’s best for them.

But destroying a man’s happiness by being a thoughtless asshole? Hurting a nice, animal-loving guy that was a love poetry reading romantic? That basically made Noya feel like he’d shoved a litter of puppies through the meat grinder. Fucking guilty.

Enough even to make him keep his distance from Drip and Drop. He still went past the coffee bar almost every morning, but didn’t enter. He would just briefly swipe his eyes over the donuts and cakes and muffins, and then quickly move on. It just felt _weird_. And what was the point of eating a delicious donut if his guilt just made it taste sour?

So Noya moped, berated himself for moping and moped even harder. He probably would have run a few more victory laps in that cycle if Kiyoko hadn’t bodily dragged him to the coffee shop a few mornings later.

„I need my donut fix,“ she’d claimed and pulled Noya through the creaking front door. 

They stood in line, Noya stared at the menu. It seemed that the shop had added a few more spring flavors to their menu. There was now a strawberry milk tea and even a mugwort latte, several combination drinks of sakura and maccha. 

There was a clink, and Noya’s response to it was Pavlovian. His eyes shot towards the glass case and traced every one of Beautiful Confectionist’s movements. They were practiced, fast and precise. The leftover donuts and cakes were put behind the fresh ones before the tray slid back behind the glass.

Noya noticed that his hair was tied back into a half bun again. Spatters of what could have been blueberry jam peppered his cheek and Noya wondered if he’d laugh if Noya would lick them right _nope_. Nope, no, Noya wasn’t going there, nope, no, no.

He didn’t even watch Beautiful Man go back to the kitchen. That was how serious Noya was taking this moping thing.

Once at the register, he peered at the fresh donuts. There were some new ones, like the seal face one that might have been the reason for that spilled blueberry jam. But Noya had to resist temptation, so he just ordered the strawberry milk tea.

He was glad that the robot was taking his order this time. There was minimal interaction, and twenty seconds later Noya had paid and was thanked for his business. But the robot wasn’t finished. „Follow us on Instagram.“

Noya furrowed his eyebrows. „Huh?“ he asked.

„Follow us on Instagram,“ the robot repeated mechanically and added, „I’m supposed to tell all of our customers to follow us, because our account is doing terribly.“ He showed Noya the receipt he had previously declined and pointed to the bottom of it. Noya read the little message printed there:

_Can’t get enough of our delish brews and cakes? Follow us on Insta!! @DripandDropCoffee ( ˘▽˘)っ♨_

Noya had to grin a little at that. „Well, if you’re doing so terribly I guess I have to help you out.“ He took the receipt from robot’s hand, who thanked him with a severe nod.

At the serving counter, he reunited with Kiyoko. She wordlessly offered him a paper bag that carried a baby seal face donut. It was unclear whether that donut was supposed to be a seal or a baby seal, but Noya wanted it to be a baby seal. He looked at it. God, it even had tiny fins on the bottom instead of ears a the top. It was so fucking _cute_. Stuffing his receipt in the bag, Noya accepted it, because he was weak.

On their walk to campus, Kiyoko just drank her coffee and ate her donut. She didn’t ask any questions about Noya’s weird mood, which wasn’t very surprising considering that Ryuu had probably filled her in on every little detail. Kiyoko was like that, just gave you space and waited for you to come to her when you wanted to talk. But there wasn’t really anything for Noya to say, except that he was the dumb-dumb she’d always known he was. So they spent their walk complaining about classes and discussing the shade that Kiyoko planned to paint her bedroom in. There was a tie between soft green and soft grey at the moment.

They parted ways on the third floor of the faculty building. Noya took the steps two at a time in a half-hearted attempt not to be late, but skidded to a halt in front of the class room. There was a neatly written note pinned to the door. It politely informed him that Yamada-Sensei had twisted his ankle when leaving the train at Nezu Station and that the class was cancelled for today.

All the energy left Noya’s body through the groan he wailed at the ceiling. He literally couldn’t count how many times he’d sit through classes with a twisted ankle, and this guy just went _home_? Seriously? And it didn’t even make sense for him to go back to his apartment, because he had another class after this one.

Noya dragged himself down the stairs again. Fucking typical, really. He went to take a sip from his tea, but of course, he’d finished it on his way to uni. Another groan was already in the making, but Noya contained it as best as he could. Pouting, he considered his options. If it weren’t so fucking freezing, he’d actually enjoy sitting under the arches of the faculty building. Right now, his best option was probably the library.

Noya didn’t even have to exit the building to get there, which was a plus. Once there, he opted to forgo the desks next to the window, but rather found a nice spot on the carpet in between book shelves. Actual student life style, fuck yeah. _And_ he could hopefully eat his donut in peace.

As quietly as he could, Noya pulled the baby seal face donut out of the paper bag. It was almost too cute to eat. But eat it Noya did and _ooooh_ , it was actually filled with blackberry jam! So maybe no blueberry jam on Beautiful Man’s face? Noya considered this carefully. As he chewed on the donut, his eyes caught on something in the paper bag. 

Oh right, the receipt that the robot gave him. Noya fumbled it out, reread the tiny message at the bottom. In a matter of seconds, he’d thumbed into his Instagram app and typed in the account name. He clicked on the one match the app found.

Noya scrolled through the profile, examined some of the posts. Mostly, they were artfully taken shots of steaming coffee cups, decorated with flowers or spices, advertising a new or popular brew. They alternated with pictures of baked goods. Cakes, muffins, pies, donuts piled on top of each other or positioned on plates, some boomerangs of somebody slicing into them with a fork. So all pretty standard, but not actually bad? Noya scrolled to the top again. Only a little bit over 500 followers. That wasn’t really much considering that the coffee bar had so many visitors.

Munching on his donut, Noya scrolled further down. A few months into the past, the pictures changed.

Suddenly, Noya was looking at all these shots of employees presenting their favorite roasts, striking cute or silly poses with cups in their hands. The captions were quotes along the lines of why they liked that particular roast. Probably fake as all fuck, but what wasn’t fake on Instagram. Noya was frowning at a shot of Assistant Manager attempting to balance a full coffee cup on his head. The post had over 80 likes. With a few thumb movements, Noya scrolled up to the more recents ones. Yep, the ones with the employees had attracted much more attention. Wasn’t that some kind of social media rule, though? People over products? Or something? Kinda weird that they would change a successful formula.

Noya was leafing through the older posts when he saw it. Just a shot of a blonde girl, petite, smiling, holding a bag of coffee beans. And underneath it, a comment: _i saw you today but you didn’t even say hello_

And underneath that, another one: _it’s okay if you don’t want me to walk you home i just think it would be safer_

And another one: _us cute girls have to stick together i’m just looking out for you. i’ll come by tomorrow and we can talk about it. oh and i found your profile on here but it’s on private so i guess you get a lot of follow requests since you didn’t see mine yet haha but yeah so can you accept it lol thanks!!_

So that was probably that stalker they’d had problems with, huh? Noya scrolled up again. While they had apparently kept posting photos of other employees for some time, this was the last post that featured the blonde girl. Maybe she had quit soon afterwards? He had never seen her at the coffee shop since he’d started coming so frequently. 

What a shitty card to be dealt. Noya hoped that wherever that girl was, she was doing amazing to make up for that shit she undoubtedly had to go through.

Noya continued to just tap his way through the account. Some of the posts were unexpectedly entertaining, like the ones that became an entire saga about the employees creating a human pyramid to change a light bulb, because nobody could find the ladder. It seemed like a fun place to work at.

He scrolled back to the slightly more recent ones, and Noya had wondered, okay? Because there weren’t only baristas working at the place, as he well knew. But none of them showed up in any of the posts. In autumn, though, on some of the last posts featuring employees, there he was. Beautiful Confectionist, offering a white glazed ghost donut to the camera. A self-deprecating smile curled on his lips where somebody had painted a kawaii style muzzle on his face and a pair of bear ears sat on his head. And he was fucking winking, and there was a _tiny heart_ smeared next to the winking eye. Beautiful Bun, dressed up as his own fucking bear donut for Halloween. 

Noya barely smothered a giddy laugh, couldn’t keep his feet from excitedly tapping against the carpet. Could this day get any better? The concentrated amount of sheer cuteness in this picture was enough to melt Noya right into the floor. Whoever had the fantastic idea of forcing Beautiful Man through this was a _saint_. Not like Noya hadn’t planned to deliver on his promise, but after seeing this picture he _had_ to follow the account. As a kind of thank you.

Noya tapped the follow button and promptly went back to his own profile. He swiped a little bit to the right in the row of stories before finding the ones from Drip and Drop. There weren’t that many. The first two were boomerangs from yesterday, the rest was a video separated into parts from today. Noya had to scramble for his ear plugs once he realized it was with sound. After he’d jammed the plugs into his ears, he restarted the story.

It wasn’t anything super amazing. Noya watched a couple of hands slice up a freshly baked strawberry shortcake while Assistant Manager recorded them and asked the hand owner questions about the ingredients and baking process. Halfway through the second part, there was a huge clank. The phone stayed pointed where it was, but Assistant Manager shouted: „Asahi, you bastard, are you destroying my kitchen again?!“

Somebody chuckled. „Yeah, and I shall not rest until it has all been smothered in jam.“ And that was Beautiful Man. That was his voice, Noya knew that was his voice, because it echoed in his head whenever he read the poem or when he pictured him reciting it in Noya’s bed, fuck, right? That was him, right? Oh God, oh shit. He needed to restart the story but his fucking finger was so fucking clumsy, what the fuck, why didn’t it obey him anymore? There was some furious tapping and fuming until the story restarted.

Noya heard it again. The chuckle, that was his, although Noya had only heard him laugh in real life, it just fit him so well, and it had the same tone. Then the words, that _voice_ and yes, fuck, _fuck_ , that was him, it really was, it was _him_.

Noya’s hand shook. The app jumped to the next story, but Noya didn’t care, didn’t give a single flying fuck. He breathed heavily through his nose, pressed his hand over his mouth that had stretched into a disbelieving smile.

_Asahi_.

His name. Asahi.

It was soft. Something that could be whispered into loose hair or tender lips. Noya mouthed it into his cupped hand, lips brushing his palm.

Asahi. The morning sun.

Noya removed his hand from his mouth and pressed it over his chest. His heart had no business throbbing like that. For some reason, it made him smile harder.

Noya slurped down his noodles and informed the table proudly: „I know his name!“

Ryuu’s answer was just a „Huh?“, since he was busy wolfing down his own ramen, while Kiyoko fixed him with a curious gaze. „Beautiful Confectionist’s name?“

„Yes!“ Noya replied loudly, feeling the grin almost split his face in half.

Kiyoko smiled at him brightly. Noya was almost a little surprised by it. „So?“

„Asahi,“ Noya said, but he wanted to whisper it, because that was how it should be said. Quiet and private, adoring.

His best friends looked at him. Finally, Ryuu prompted: „And…?“

Noya shrugged his shoulders. „That’s it.“

„He doesn’t have a last name?“ Kiyoko asked with a raised eyebrow.

„No!“ Noya answered laughing, untangled more noodles from his soup, „I don’t know his last name.“

There was a small pause, then: „So you didn’t talk to him and apologize?“

„Nope.“ 

„Then how do you know his name, dude? Finally put that Ouija board to good use?“

Noya shook his head, although yes, that _would_ have finally been a good use for that thing. „Started following the coffee shop’s Insta account. Somebody said his name in their story from today, and he responded to it and bingo.“

„So you figured it out all Detective Conan-like. Nice!“ They shared a smug high-five.

Kiyoko twisted her mouth thoughtfully. „Seems a little… underhanded.“

Since Noya was too busy slurping down the rest of his soup, he just gave her an intense look and raised eyebrows to convey his question.

„You found out his first name by going through his work space’s Instagram account.“ She shrugged. She _shrugged_ like she hadn’t just basically sucker punched Noya verbally.

He slammed his bowl down on the table. „What do you mean, is that creepy? Was I being creepy?“

His eyes jumped from Kiyoko’s pensive expression to Ryuu’s dramatically pursed lips. Oh shit, had he been a slimy, wily _creep_? The comment from earlier flashed through his head: _i saw you today but you didn’t even say hello_

Noya continued almost frantically, „I didn’t want to figure out his name, they told me they needed more traffic on their account, and I followed it, and then the assistant manager happened to say his name while they were baking cake. I didn’t _want_ to know his name before he told me or without him knowing that I know it, it just happened, and I think it suits him really well-“

„Okay, okay, my squirrel friend, hold your horses,“ Ryuu said and even had the _nerve_ to raise his hands at him reassuringly. Noya barely resisted the urge to huff at him. 

Ryuu turned towards Kiyoko. „I don’t think it’s underhanded. He wasn’t really out to get that info, right? It’s not like he followed all of the shop’s hashtags or went through all of the comments to see if he could find the guy’s private profile and shit.“ Noya nodded his head so strongly that he almost gave himself a concussion.

Kiyoko curled her mouth, then smiled at him. „Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry, Noya-Kun, I used that word without thinking. It’s not creepy.“

The breath he’d been holding escaped him in a whoosh. „Okay. Okay. You know they’ve had some shit going on with a stalker? I saw some cringy comments on their profile, I don’t think the employee involved with it works with them anymore.“ He sighed in relief. „I think I’d just about shot myself if I was being a creep like that.“

Ryuu made a noncommittal sound, but there was a shrewd glint in his eyes as he gulped down his soup. Noya was glad that subtlety was not really Ryuu’s thing. He jumped into everything head first and Noya appreciated that about him.

But he didn’t appreciate it all that much when Ryuu just came out with it: „Soooo, you kind of care about that. Huh?“

Noya’s eyebrows drew together. „You said that before. Is it supposed to mean something?“

Ryuu waved him off, leaned back on his hands. „Nah, man, just tryin’ to figure out what you want from this guy.“

What Noya wanted from him? Well, that was pretty obvious.

„He wants to seduce him,“ Kiyoko readily supplied, noodles disappearing into her mouth. Seduce seemed kind of a too innocent word for how hard Noya wanted to plow him, but he settled on it with a benevolent nod.

And then he frowned. Both of his friends watched the change in his expression like circling hawks.

„Yeah, I mean,“ Noya said slowly, thinking, „I do wanna do that, but I also… want to talk to him, you know. Spent time together, oh!“ He jolted upwards. „I definitely need to ask him about Extinguish My Eyes and some other shit I found out!“

„Extinguish what now?“ Ryuu mumbled.

„The poem this Asahi-man recited for Noya,“ Kiyoko replied and patted Ryuu’s hand.

„Oh okay,“ Ryuu said easily. He switched on the taunting from one second to the next like some kind of evil light switch. „Wait, what? You _researched_ shit about that poem?“ His guffaws were loud, but there was totally nothing to be embarrassed about, Noya reminded himself. „Did you calligraphy it into your diary, too?“

Noya knew no shame, but in that moment, he might have blushed the tiniest bit as he shoved Ryuu’s shoulder hard.

„So what?“ he snapped. „I’m not allowed to wanna know shit about it?“

„I would definitely look up everything about a poem somebody quoted to me so adorably,“ Kiyoko interjected.

„Oho? Do you want me to recite my favorite, cheesiest love poetry to you, my sweetie pie?“

„I would probably burst a kidney from laughing, so no, thank you.“

Ryuu laughed, swiped the curtain of Kiyoko’s hair over her shoulder as she smiled at him cheekily.

Noya watched them with a clench in his chest, and it came to him in a flash: _That, I want that, too_. And okay, cool, but _what_ , what exactly did he want? To brush somebody’s hair back? Maybe he could do that with Asahi’s hair, it was pretty long, right?

Ryuu brought their attention back to the matter by slamming his hand against the table. „So it’s settled.“ He pointed a finger at Noya. „You want to bang this guy and spent time with him. Conclusion: you wanna be friends with benefits.“

Noya slammed his hand down right next to Ryuu’s and shouted: „Exactly!“ But then his expression fell down into a frown, and he hummed thoughtfully. That wasn’t _really_ it, though, right?

His friends bent forward, a strange, watchful look in their eyes. Weird, was there something going on here that Noya wasn’t privy to?

He shrugged his shoulders and said: „Friends with benefits sounds awesome!“ Then he picked up their empty bowls and threw them into the overflowing sink. 

„Yeah!“ Ryuu agreed with a fist bump while Kiyoko sighed.

Noya pretended he didn’t notice Kiyoko’s searching look for the rest of the evening.

It was almost midnight when Noya slid into bed. The billboard had picked up travel ads praising the unique experience that was witnessing the spring awakening at Mt. Yufu. Pale green and pink lights chased each other over Noya’s bedroom walls. They washed over him curled on his side under the covers, the glow of his phone faint in comparison. His eyes traced over familiar characters, Break off my arms, I’ll take hold of you. It hummed through his mind, but there was a deeper throb in him, beating under it in an endless rhythm, pouring out in one single name.

_Asahi_ , it whispered in Noya’s head, and he smiled. _Asahi_.

Two days later found Noya in the library actually doing some work. End of semester was fast approaching, and while they still had a few weeks into the next one to hand in their shit, it was probably a smart move to get some of it done now.

But that wasn’t really what happened for Noya. Instead of looking up Basho haikus, he piled up all the books he could find on Rainer Maria Rilke, Vienna Moderne and Dinglyrik. Twenty minutes ago Noya hadn’t known that Dinglyrik even existed. According to the Rainer Maria Rilke handbook, Dinggedichte were poems which focussed on an animate or inanimate object described in an objectified way to convey a mood or a poetic theme. What in the fuck. Although Noya was highly suspicious of all of it, he couldn’t stop reading, looking for further references, roaming the shelves for something more.

Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t such a big selection to choose from. While apparently known to the Japanese literary world, not many people had bothered with the Austrian poet. There were only four volumes of his translated poems available. They were highly selective, all the translators apparently only choosing their favorite poems or whatever. But one of them _must_ have translated The Panther. According to the handbook, it was one of Rilke’s most famous poems and a prime example of a Dinggedicht.

Noya intently perused the index of one of those volumes. It fucking had to be somewhere. He scratched at his shamefully flat hair under his wool hat and flipped to the next page. He was a man on a mission, a mission unclear to even himself, but there was a reason in it somewhere, a reason for why he couldn’t focus on anything else, a reason to why he needed to hoard as much information about this poet as he could. 

Noya flipped another page, and then it was dark, somebody had put a woolen blanket over his head, what shit prank was this-

„Oh! I’m so sorry!“ 

Noya’s heart immediately tore up into his throat.

The blanket that was actually a thick scarf was swept to the side. „I’m sorry, it just, it just… got loose… somehow…“ the man in front of Noya trailed off and he only thought _It’s you, hi, hello, it’s you, oh, I always thought that you would smell sweet, but that’s not at all what you smell like and I know that now_

He looked into wide eyes that were just as genuine as when he’d looked at them rooted to the spot by words and a firm grip, and then only thought _Asahi_

The man named Asahi looked at Noya, one hand clumsily trying to secure his scarf again while the other rested against the spine of a book. His mouth was slightly open, and Noya wanted to kiss it. _God_ , did he want to kiss him, he craved it so much it was like a literal pull, just to lean up and ravish his lips with his own like they all wrote in those stupid poems.

Instead, Noya opened his mouth, tried to squeeze some breath past the heart pounding in his throat.

„It’s alright, no harm done!“ he said, just like that, like it was nothing, because it was actually nothing, it was just talking, why had that been so difficult before?

Noya grinned at Asahi, that was his name, _Asahi_. Excitement bubbled up in him like a spring.

Asahi’s gaze darted between Noya’s grin and eyes. With impressive speed his cheeks flushed, then the tips of his ears, then his neck. It was cute. And _funny_. Noya tried to hide his widening grin by biting his lower lip. It was like he’d swallowed a magnet, because Asahi’s eyes were suddenly pulled towards his mouth. He took his own lip between his teeth gently, which almost caused Noya’s brain to short circuit again.

He had not the lick of an idea of what was going on right now, but whatever it was, Noya wanted it to go on forever.

Then Asahi inhaled sharply, his eyes not anymore on Noya’s face, but rather his hands. His hands that were holding several volumes of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poems.

Something like doubt lanced through Noya. Was that weird? Was it weird that he’d look up the author of the poem that Asahi had quoted at him and collect every scrap of information he could dig up about him? Maybe it was. Noya didn’t know what to do with that expression on Asahi’s face, it was just bafflement.

And then he saw the hint of a surprised smile, morphing into something soft and, and happy. Asahi liked it. It was not weird, Asahi liked it, it made him happy, Noya couldn’t fathom why, but it did. God, _breathe_ , dumbass.

He beamed up at the man in front of him. This was _perfect_ , Noya could finally talk about this stupid poem with Asahi and ask him why the hell he had recited _that_ one to him.

Noya took a shaky breath, and Asahi flinched, the flush on his face deepened several shades. Was that even still healthy? He hastily grabbed the sought book from the shelf, hitting Noya again in the face with his scarf. He only laughed at it, but Asahi snatched it away as if it was giving Noya third degree burns. 

„Sorry!“ Asahi cheeped, and then again, „Sorry.“ But he smiled at Noya, small and honest and flustered. „Bye,“ he said, before whirling around and flying down the aisle.

For somebody so tall, Asahi was very quick on his feet. Noya wanted to lament this fact, because Asahi had already disappeared from view before Noya could react. But the thing was, Noya was happy. He was ecstatic, he was a fucking puddle of delight. 

He had seen Asahi, he had enjoyed something that resembled a conversation with him, _he knew what Asahi smelled like_. He had smiled at Noya. Genuine and small and all the more precious for it.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, was progress. There was still the small matter of not actually knowing what it was he wanted from Asahi, but whatever, that would sort itself out.

When Noya left the library several hours later, he wound his own scarf around his neck. He closed his eyes for a moment as he buried his nose in the fabric, trying to recreate the scent from memory. It had been wooden, deep, almost dark, but not overpowering. Enveloping him gently, but firmly. _There_. It filled up his nostrils, wafted up into his brain. Asahi’s scent. Maybe if he willed it hard enough, the scent would burn itself into his synapses and stay there, never to be forgotten.

Noya kept his nose buried in his scarf and that scent floating through his mind all the way home.


	5. 5

Something had changed.

Noya noticed it the next day when he entered the coffee bar, timing it perfectly with Asahi’s tray swaps. There was the usual clinking and clanking, the usual lurking motion of the guests. And there was also a quick gaze turned upward, scanning the crowd. To his surprise, it landed straight on Noya standing in line. He watched intently as some color flooded Asahi’s cheeks and an uncertain smile spread on his face. 

Noya’s heart picked up speed. This had never happened before. Well, their eyes had crossed before, which had usually resulted in Asahi averting his gaze and slinking away like a skittish kitten. But he didn’t intentionally _look_ for anybody. Because that was what he’d been doing, looking specifically for Noya. He’d always kind of assumed that Asahi was too engrossed in his work to _really_ notice Noya watching him, but… maybe he had?

Noya beamed, lifted his hand in a distant greeting. Asahi’s smile grew wider as he inclined his head. 

Swiftly, he gathered the empty trays and disappeared behind the kitchen door. Noya was fully charged with giddiness when he grabbed his tea off the serving counter. It almost bounced out of his hand.

The best thing was that it kept happening. Noya would step into the shop in the morning and shortly afterwards Asahi would change the trays. He’d search the crowd of customers until he’d find Noya. Without fail, he would smile, and Noya would smile right back. They would greet each other silently, and Asahi would return to the kitchen.

The _second_ best thing was the time when Noya had nearly made Asahi brain himself on the glass case. As soon as Asahi had raised his eyes to look for him during the tray change, Noya had tapped the glass lightly. Asahi had reared back so violently that a couple of trays had screeched against the metal. With flaming cheeks, he’d apologized profusely to nobody in particular. While Noya had snorted with laughter, Asahi had quickly replaced the baked treats, peeking at Noya under his lashes. The red blooming on his face was deeper than the shades Noya had admired the last few days. Noya hadn’t felt an ounce of remorse about flustering Asahi so badly, though. Not when Asahi had smiled at him like that.

Once he was finished, Asahi had straightened and hugged the trays to his chest, because he was just utterly adorable, God. „Good morning,“ he’d said quietly. Noya could still remember the thudding of his heart as he’d answered, „Good morning!“

There was still some nervousness, but it pleased Noya to no end to see Asahi loosening up a little around him. Every smile he directed at Noya felt like a fucking gift. He was pretty sure that their surprise meeting in the library had caused this magic to happen, but wondered what _exactly_ had caused it. Was he flattered that Noya would look up the writer of the poem? But, well, that didn’t really seem so much like Asahi. 

Except that Noya didn’t even know that much about him, but there seemed to be more potential now to expand his knowledge than ever.

Considering that Noya’s life had suddenly become amazing, it was only natural that it would bitchslap him back to reality soon enough.

At the end of his next love poetry class, Yuasa-Sensei fixed him with a neutral gaze and said, „Nishinoya-San, a word?“

This couldn’t be good. 

After he packed his things, Noya made his way over to her desk. Her expression didn’t give anything away. Whelp, it couldn’t hurt to dial up his natural charm a little bit.

So Noya grinned wildly at her and asked, „What’s up, Sensei?“

„Everyone has sent me the poem they are going to analyze for the end-of-semester essay.“ Her eyes were sharp. „Everyone except you, that is.“

She didn’t beat around the bush, that was for sure.

„Oh, I wasn’t aware that we were supposed to send that to you already,“ he replied neutrally.

There was a short beat of silence during which she just regarded him with cool eyes. Shit.

„I know that your priorities lie with your sports scholarship. And that’s okay, it’s the reason why you’re here. But you also have a responsibility towards this study program, Nishinoya-San.“

Why did everybody automatically assume that he didn’t give a shit just because he was on a sports scholarship?

„I do have a poem that I want to write about, actually.“

Noya guessed that he probably looked just as surprised as Yuasa-Sensei.

She gave him an encouraging smile. „Okay, which one do you want to write about?“

Noya took out his phone, trying to suppress a frown. This was probably a bad idea. She was just going to say no to him, he was sure of it.

Nevertheless, he thumbed open the bookmark and showed her the poem. Noya watched her eyes skip from character to character.

Finally, she looked up at him with pursed lips. „I’m afraid you can’t write about this poem. This is the Japanese Literature department, not the International one.“

Noya wasn’t surprised, but also not ready to give up yet. „I could write about the Japanese translation.“

„You are supposed to analyze the poem with the tools that I have taught you in class, not compare original writing and translation.“

„I could do that, but also take into consideration the discrepancy of the original and the translation.“

Yuasa-Sensei huffed. She looked back at Noya’s phone with drawn eyebrows.

„And you think this is a love poem?“ she asked with a twisted mouth.

„I think it could be.“ 

Noya wasn’t sure himself what he meant with his answer, but he liked Yuasa-Sensei’s pleasantly surprised expression.

She handed him his phone back. „Well, I must say that I think it is a good sign that you have this poem saved as a bookmark.“

Noya felt himself flush a little, but tried to cover it up with a big grin.

„I will make an exception and allow you to write about this poem, if you give me an additional three pages concerning the Japanese translation.“

Oh, fuck. Noya opened his mouth, closed it. Then, he saw the hint of a smirk on Yuasa-Sensei’s face.

Oh, it was _on_.

„Yes, Yuasa-Sensei! Thank you very much, Yuasa-Sensei!“ he yelled at her, bowed and ran out the door.

For being kind of fucked for this assignment, Noya felt unexpectedly happy when he hit the street. He decided he’d just ace this. Maybe Kiyoko could give him some tips, and then he’d knock this essay out of the fucking park.

That wasn’t really what happened, though. 

Kiyoko was too occupied with her own papers to find time to help him. The only thing she could offer was to proofread his finished product, and while Noya was grateful for that, he might have been a little more than fucked. How was he going to get a finished product if he had no idea what he was doing?

His notes, though diligently kept, didn’t help all that much. What good was it that he could identify a metaphor, but not extract any meaning from it? What _did_ kind of help was that huge Rilke handbook, but it’s not like it could actually write this thing for him. And Noya fucking sucked at writing.

So Noya went to practice and procrastinated. Ignored Kiyoko’s needling questions about whether he’d already started writing his essay. Kept taking meaningless notes in Yuasa-Sensei’s class. Went to the coffee shop and got his Asahi fix in the mornings.

Until the most genius idea struck him as he brushed his teeth.

„Good Morning!“ he said even before Asahi set down the new trays. 

Asahi’s smile was bright in return. It had kind of grown in width ever since they had picked up this good morning routine. His hair was tied all the way back and his shirt, apron and forearms liberally spattered with dough. Ah, he was a sight to behold. 

„Good morning,“ Asahi replied.

Noya waited until he had swapped all of the trays before he asked, „Hey, do you have a minute?“

Although Asahi seemed calm enough as he nodded, the way his face immediately caught on fire was a dead giveaway for his nervousness.

They walked over to the far end of the counter, the glass case in between them. Asahi managed a smile. „What can I do for you?“

Noya had to kick down his first answer, which went something along the lines of _You could wrap your naked body around me and let me fingerbang you cross-eyed_. Instead, he asked, „You like love poetry, right?“

„Ah,“ Asahi answered, looking slightly to the side, „So you remembered that, huh?“

„Of course I did! I remember everything from that conversation!“

„Oh,“ Asahi said, not exactly looking thrilled about that.

Noya cleared his throat, suddenly feeling a little on edge. „And you probably remember I have this class on it, right?“

Asahi nodded. „Yes, I do. How is that going?“

„That’s exactly what I wanted to talk about with you. Since you declared yourself a not-so-closeted romantic-“ The flush on Asahi’s face intensified and, God, did Noya enjoy teasing him. „-I thought maybe you cou-“

The fire alarm went off.

Noya flinched, eyes drawn to the ceiling where the alarm flashed red. A shrill, repetitive beep that would hurt his ears if it was any louder boomed through the shop. People shuffled around, looked confused. As Noya returned his attention back to Asahi, he only caught the strings of his apron flying as he ran into the kitchen. Smoke billowed out of the swinging kitchen door in moderate amounts. It was definitely enough to make the customers nervous.

Noya stood in front of the glass case, frozen to the spot. Would, would Asahi come back? But then there were some shouts from the kitchen, and the sound of a fire extinguisher going off. Oh shit.

After a minute, Assistant Manager stumbled out of the door and addressed the crowd, „Please, everybody, for your own safety, leave Drip and Drop. The fire is already out, but, just to be safe, please leave this place.“

And the costumers did, murmuring, puzzled, concerned. Noya watched them go, chewed on his lip. It didn’t seem like such a big deal, but maybe somebody was hurt? Maybe Noya could help in some way? It wasn’t like he had any training, just some experience in volleyball related injuries, but… maybe?

Assistant Manager watched as the customers filed out of his shop. Since Noya was the last person standing around, Assistant Manager’s eyes came to rest on him. A tired, but friendly smile spread on his face. 

„Is everything okay back there?“ Noya asked. 

Assistant Manager waved his question off. „Don’t worry, everything’s okay, he’s fine.“

Noya couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so casually and completely exposed.

„Oh, okay,“ he answered on auto-pilot, „Thanks, and good luck with this!“

He gave an encouraging wave and left the coffee bar.

Well, this kind of sucked. His plans had been foiled again, this time by a fucking fire. Just as he’d been about to enlist Asahi’s help.

Noya huffed. That son of a bitch fire. Well, if the universe was trying to tell him something about getting friendly with Asahi, it better try telling him louder than this.

Unsurprisingly, Noya’s day started weird and continued in that direction. His phone vibrated with new messages non-stop in his pocket during Linguistics II. When he fished it out and scrolled back to the beginning of the messages, he saw a text from Makiyama.

_Boys, practice is cancelled for tonight, maybe also tomorrow. Coach’s wife is getting their kid today._

There were a few jubilant replies and a lot more sulky ones. While Noya was definitely happy for their slavedriver coach, he also felt a little disappointed. After all, they were supposed to have a practice match against Tokai today. When Noya joined the conversation, the team was already planning how to make that match happen anyway.

_Unfortunately, the match has also been cancelled. Officially, at least_ , Makiyama wrote, _I know some of the players on Tokai’s team, though. I’ll contact them and see what we can come up with._

In the afternoon on his way home, the messages flooded his phone again. Noya knew from experience that walking while reading texts on his phone was not a good idea, so he stopped and fumbled it out.

Makiyama’s effort had apparently paid off. _Good news! We’ll have that practice match after all. Since some of Tokai’s team can’t make it, they’re asking some friends at the Bunkyo Neighborhood Association to help out. It’s gonna take place at our gym at 8pm, so be on the court at 7.30pm for warm-up._

Noya frowned. The what now? He scanned the messages. Seemed like his teammates had the same doubts as him.

_The Bunkyo Neighborhood Association? That fucking exists? What, do they, like, practice every full moon?_

_does that even make sense? were just gonna obliterate them lol_

_I was looking forward to play Tokai U not the granny association :(_

Makiyama’s reply came just when Noya reached the end of the texts. _I swear you guys are so fucking thirsty. We are going to play Tokai, just not all of their first string players.  
You all better show up to that practice. I’m gonna make you suffer if you don’t._

Noya grinned. In times like these, he appreciated Makiyama’s tough-ass approach to captainship.

He slipped his phone back into his pocket. If Noya was being honest, his enthusiasm for practice had also waned. But meh, what was he gonna do, it would probably still be fun, and a practice match against an easy opponent was better than no practice match. 

When Noya arrived at the gym’s changing rooms at quarter past seven, more than half his team was missing. Fucking cowards, the whole lot of them. 

He changed quickly, chatting to their middle blocker Tsuzuki. UTokyo’s team was nice enough and Noya felt comfortable among them, but Tsuzuki was the only one that appreciated Noya’s cunning wit. At least enough that he didn’t call Noya out on his bullshit too much. Noya allowed himself a few seconds to feel wistful about his time at Karasuno and all the shit Ryuu and him had gotten up to. Then, he stepped onto the court.

Makiyama spotted them immediately. The look on his face was stormy, probably pissed that half the team didn’t really take him seriously. „Oh, Nishinoya-San,“ he said, raising a hand in greeting, „Good that you’re here. Yayoi-San didn’t show up, so you’re our only Libero today.“

No surprise there, really. It was a well known fact that their first string Libero was a slacker, especially if the stakes weren’t high enough in his opinion.

So Noya put on his most encouraging and predatory grin. „Don’t worry, Makiyama-San! I’ll support the team so we can slap that granny association in the face!“

Makiyama nodded. „Looking forward to it, Nishinoya-San.“

Noya’s eyes wandered to the other side of the court, where a few of players had already gathered. He scrutinized them carefully. „So which ones are the ones from Tokai?“

„The boys with the yellow jersey. The ones without are from the Neighborhood Association.“

Noya nodded, already recognizing some of the more famous faces among the yellow jerseys. He regarded the handful of players standing next to them. For a Neighborhood Association, they looked to be in… pretty, pretty good…

…No fucking way.

Before he even knew it, Noya’s feet carried him over the court, under the net, to a player on the other side of the field. He was _gorgeous_ in a plain white shirt and black shorts, and there were no baking ingredients to be found on him. It should be illegal to be _this_ tall and _that_ adorable.

The last smidgen of a conversation reached Noya’s ears. „-busy flirting with a customer, that’s what he said.“ „No, no, that’s not, that’s _not_ -“

„Hey!“ Asahi flinched so hard that Noya feared he might have pulled something.

He whirled around, and it truly _was_ Asahi! Wide eyes, sinful mouth, cute man bun, all there! Not like Noya had been in doubt about it actually being him, it was just, Asahi, he was _here_.

The absolute shock on Asahi’s face stretched Noya’s grin wide. „You!“ he called out. „You’re, you play for University of Tokyo?“

„Yes! I’m their second string Libero, promoted to first string for tonight.“

„Really?“ Asahi said, and he sounded so impressed that Noya couldn’t help but preen a little.

„Yeah,“ Noya replied, all giddy inside. „How is everything at Drip and Drop? I heard you put out the fire pretty quickly.“

The guy next to Asahi gave him a telling look while Asahi chuckled nervously. „Everything is okay now, the fire was pretty small, anyway. One of my colleagues found the fire extinguisher and just. Quenched it.“

„They did? So what caused it?“

„This guy,“ Asahi’s severe looking companion replied, pointing right at a petrified Asahi, „He was supposed to watch the croissants and ended up burning them, because he was flir-“

„Okay, no, I don’t care what Suga told you, it was Kageyama. I told him to take over while I swapped the trays, he knew I wasn’t in the kitchen. But then he got too distracted playing Glow Hockey on his phone against his boyfriend, and the croissants charred to death. That’s what happened.“

„Must be a tough nut to crack, his boyfriend.“ Noya commented, „I’m glad you’re okay, though.“

„Ah, thank you,“ Asahi replied almost shyly. His friend’s sharp gaze bounced between Noya and Asahi like he was witnessing a private ping pong match.

Noya smiled encouragingly at Asahi. „So you two are part of the Bunkyo Neighborhood Association, huh? What’s your position?“

„We’re, we’re kind of small, so the positions are bound to change, but when it fits I play as a wing spiker.“

„Makes sense, you definitely have the built for it.“

Noya took a moment to enjoy the blush intensifying on Asahi’s cheeks. 

„He does. He was our Ace in our third year of high school,“ Asahi’s companion chimed in. His severe expression had been exchanged by one of high-grade amusement.

Noya looked back at Asahi, excitement amplifying his voice again. „You must be strong, then!“

Asahi rubbed at his neck awkwardly. „Maybe? I mean, I was, but now, we only practice twice a week, so…“

„I don’t know, man,“ Noya mused, examining his beefy arms, „Looks to me like you could crush apples with those biceps.“

There was a beat of silence, and then Asahi snorted. It sounded ridiculous and attractive at the same time, especially when it was accompanied by Asahi’s smile.

„I’ll try that at our next training and let you know if it worked,“ he replied. 

Makiyama whistled before Noya could say anything to that. People started gathering around his captain, so Noya just said, „I’m Nishinoya Yuu. I’m looking forward to playing with you!“

Asahi’s eyes shone brightly, and Noya wondered if he’d been dying to know Noya’s name just as much as he’d been to know Asahi’s. Wouldn’t that just be peachy? Asahi inclined his head and said, „I’m Azumane Asahi, I’m looking forward to playing with you, too.“

Azumane Asahi. His whole name, his real name.

Noya beamed, heart almost jumping on his tongue, then looked at the severe guy, who just said, „Sawamura Daichi, nice to meet you.“

Noya nodded, jogging backwards towards his team. „We’ll totally annihilate you!“ he promised, grinning from ear to ear, „It will be fun!“

There was a gleam in Asahi’s eyes as he waved back at him, and Noya couldn’t stop thinking about it all the way through warm-up.

They had enough players to drum up two teams on each side. Asahi ended up playing against UTokyo’s team two, of which Noya was not a part of. His interest was instantly cut in half playing against the other team, although there were quite a few of Tokai’s actual players in it. Still, Noya dove for every ball, shooting them up into the air like a geyser. He couldn’t afford not to take every practice match seriously if he wanted to play first string Libero after Yayoi’s graduation.

Since they were awesome, Noya’s team won their match. Tokai’s teams changed fields, and there Asahi was, standing on the other side of the court. He was talking about something with Sawamura and retieing his hair. Strands of it slipped from his wet, flushed face as he gathered them behind his head. His hair tie was clenched between his teeth, and Noya wanted to fuck him, he wanted to fuck him hard, and he wanted to fuck him slow, he wanted to know what would make him clench tight around Noya’s cock pounding into him, wanted to know what would make him _beg_.

Noya bit his tongue as a whistle signaled the start of the game, focussed on the pain to keep himself from getting hard on the fucking court. Holy shit, he needed to put a lid on those fantasies if he wanted to survive this match. Smacking a throbbing dick right into the floor during a dive was _not_ fun.

That was all well and good until Asahi really called out for his first ball. Noya’d actually been wondering if he ever would. The first six balls had been spiked by Sawamura and one of Tokai’s first string players, while Asahi had only played decoy. But this time he called for it, and there was something in his face, something about the power rippling in his body that had Noya’s attention completely hooked.

Asahi flew and Noya’s calves tensed. The sound of a gunshot rang out over the field. Noya leapt and slid on instinct alone, kneepads screeching and arms reaching, but the ball hit them at an awkward angle and was so strong it fucking hurt. It bounced against his underarm and fired off the court.

His eyes snapped from the ball back to Asahi. He took in Asahi’s lips curling into a smirk and his chin raised in a challenge on the other side of the net.

From that moment on, Noya was cursed. He kept diving, kept saving balls, but also kept watching Asahi, kept staring at the dark trail on his stomach every time his shirt rode up, kept yearning to touch him, kiss him, to hold onto him tight while Asahi opened him up with his cock. God, he could probably do it standing up, right against the wall, fingers digging into Noya’s ass as he held him up.

All the tongue biting in the world couldn’t help Noya now. On the other side of the court, Asahi beat the ball like a drum, smiled at Noya when it shot past his reach, _grinned_ at him when Noya vaulted it up into the air again, and Noya grinned right back, a mantra looping the only thing in his head: _I want you, please, I want you so fucking much_

It was like they were the only ones on the court and the others just background noise. Every time one of his teammates clapped his shoulder for a nice receive, Noya almost flinched, because he’d been too busy watching Asahi’s reaction. Even when Asahi was not spiking, even when he hadn’t received his ball, Noya was watching him.

At the end, they won, of course. In about three seconds after the whistle went off, Noya was already on the other side of the net and in Asahi’s face.

„That was cool! I mean we totally destroyed you, but you were still really good!“ he shouted at Asahi.

„You were really good,“ Asahi countered laughing, „I never saw any Libero cross the court in three leaps.“

The praise felt like warm honey in his throat. He could hardly stop himself from grabbing Asahi by his shirt and climbing him like a tree. „Why are you not on a scholarship somewhere? Did you not get in?“

Asahi shook his head. „I never tried out for it. There were other things I wanted to do.“

„Really? Like what?“

Asahi was about to answer, but then the fucking whistle sounded again. „Clean up!“ Makiyama shouted at them. 

Noya groaned, fixed Asahi with a serious gaze. „Don’t you dare leave before I talked to you, Azumane-San!“

Asahi’s smile was lop-sided. „I wouldn’t.“

Noya went about clean up like a man on the run. The people from the Neighborhood Association assisted them, of course, but Noya didn’t want Asahi to just leave, didn’t want to miss this opportunity. _Again_. 

But Makiyama mustered UTokyo up for a debrief, and Noya saw his chances dwindle. It lasted for fucking hours, and people even had _questions_ at the end of it, since when did anybody have questions?

As soon as the captain released them, Noya basically sprinted towards the changing rooms. He probably wouldn’t leave, right? He told Noya he’d wait for him, he’d probably still be here. Something churned in Noya’s stomach all the same, something unhappy and disappointed.

Just as Noya jogged past another row of lockers, a voice called, „Nishinoya-San.“

Asahi sat on a bench, completely changed. His hair was still pulled back, but he’d swapped his sports wear for light colored slacks, a black sweater and a stunning light grey coat. It accentuated his frame perfectly and pulled Noya’s eyes as he approached him.

„That coat looks cool,“ he said surprised. Were cute dorks allowed to look cool? Wasn’t that upsetting the balance of the universe somehow?

„Ah, thank you!“ Asahi replied. He sounded honestly pleased, more even than when Noya had complimented him on his play. He looked at Asahi’s deeply flushed face, and it was just a second, just a tiny, minuscule second, but the image was broadcasted on all channels, a full coverage story of Asahi folded in two on his couch, hair loose and mouth open, face colored crimson with his back squirming on Noya’s thighs, just the right height for him to suck on his entrance, to fuck him with his tongue all wet and pliant and weak, spread eagle while his hole twitched around Noya, panting for it softly, but swallowing all of his pleas behind bite swollen lips.

Maybe Asahi would let him do that to him, would let Noya make him feel so good. The thought had his throat _parched_.

„I’m sorry, Nishinoya-San,“ Asahi said gingerly, „But my bus will be coming soon, and I still need to walk to the station. You said you had something you wanted to talk about?“

„I did,“ Noya responded, feeling a little guilty for his momentary loss of control when Asahi was standing _right_ in front of him. But now the other players filed into the room with curious eyes, and Asahi had to hurry to catch his bus and, agh, fuck.

„Do you ever open the coffee bar?“

Asahi blinked at him. „Not really. I mean I get there pretty early most mornings, but I don’t actually open the bar for customers.“

„When do you get there?“

„At five, usually. I start baking pretty much immediately.“ Noya wanted to hurl, why so fucking _early_.

„Could I meet you there tomorrow at five?“

Asahi opened his mouth, but didn’t answer.

The churning feeling made a comeback in Noya’s stomach. „I really just need to ask you something, like, some advice. About love poetry. But now you’re in a hurry and shit and, do you have time tomorrow morning?“

Smiling a little bemusedly, Asahi finally nodded at him. „Yeah, that’s alright, I think. You can come by the shop tomorrow morning. If it’s not going to take long?“

Noya basically tripped over his own words as he replied, „Great! I mean no, it won’t take long, I promise! Cool, so, okay. I see you tomorrow morning, then?“

Asahi’s smile was so cute that it could have stopped Noya’s heart right there. „Yes, see you tomorrow, Nishinoya-San,“ Asahi said. He gave a dorky wave, turned around and left.

Noya grinned like a lunatic as he burst through the front door.

„I got a date!“ he yelled while throwing down his gear, „Well, not really a date, but close enough! Also, I’m home!“

Ryuu waved at him from where he was snuggling into Kiyoko’s side on the sofa. „Yo, my man,“ he greeted Noya. Kiyoko smiled at him and said, „There’s leftover White Stew in the fridge.“

Nice! Noya practically danced over to the kitchen corner, wrenched the fridge open and banged the stew pot on the stove.

„You okay there?“ Ryuu’s voice drifted over to him.

And the answer was, of course, „Fuck yeah! I’m seeing Asahi tomorrow! At ass o’clock in the fucking morning, but I’m seeing him!“

„You are? That’s great, Noya-Kun.“ Kiyoko’s smile tinted the tone of her voice. Hearing it made Noya suddenly so glad that she was his friend. 

„Oho, nice!“ Ryuu accentuated his cheer with a distant high-five. „Did you go back after the fire to check on your man?“

Noya opted to plop down on the couch table, because Ryuu’s fat ass occupied most of the sofa. „Noooo, it’s much better than that! He’s in the Bunkyo Neighborhood Association, and we played against them, because half of Tokai’s team didn’t show up, the losers. So he used to be a wing spiker in high school, and I introduced myself, and now I know his full name, and we played together, and his spike was like fucking _BOOM_ , like, I thought it was gonna break my wrist, just like-“

„Okay, cowboy, slow down,“ Ryuu said, finally deigning to sit up a little, „He used to play volleyball in high school, and now he’s in this thingymajiggy Association?“

„Yeah! And he’s still really good! I mean I totally kicked his ass, but, you know, considering he doesn’t really play that seriously, he’s still really good.“ And hot as all fuck on the court.

Kiyoko hummed thoughtfully. „Congratulations on finally introducing yourself. What’s his name?“

„Azumane Asahi,“ Noya answered. It was the first time he said it out loud. The thought put a huge smile on his face, made his fists clench in an effort to contain all the giddiness inside of him.

„Has a nice ring to it,“ Kiyoko commented. She glanced down at Noya’s hands, and he unfurled them. „So you’re meeting him tomorrow for breakfast?“

Noya heard the stew bubble in its pot and jogged into the kitchen. „Actually, I just asked to meet him. I’m totally fucked for this essay, right, but this morning I was like: holy shit, I can just ask this guy who’s apparently super into love poetry to help me with this stuff. So I’m meeting him tomorrow to enlist his help.“

Noya plopped down next to Ryuu and started shoveling the piping hot stew into his maw, cursing occasionally. 

Ryuu grinned approvingly at him and slapped his shoulder. „Look at you, being all subtle and scoring a date like that.“

Half the stew in his mouth fell back into his bowl as he said, „It’s not really a date. I’ll ask him out, though, like seriously ask the shit out of him.“

„Oh, he’s so gonna go on a date with you. You’re fucking adorable.“

„You only say that because you haven’t seen _him_ yet.“

There was a short lull in the conversation, but then Kiyoko picked it up, „So you can finally get to the bottom of your conundrum. I’m happy for you.“

Noya frowned at her, smile only slightly slipping. „My what?“

„Your conundrum. You were unsure what kind of relationship you wanted to have with him. Maybe you will figure that out when you meet him.“

Oh right. Noya had kind of forgotten about that in the face of everything falling perfectly together now. The prospect of actually _being_ with Asahi had apparently put blinders on him.

„Yeah, good point! I’ll ask him all of the things.“

„Like?“ Kiyoko prompted him.

„I don’t know!“ Noya replied cheerfully, „But I’ll ask them, and then I’ll know.“ It was foolproof.

Ryuu apparently agreed with him, since he laughed and high-fived Noya again. Kiyoko just returned his smile and said, „Sounds good.“

„Right?“ Noya said, because it did. He tossed his chopsticks into the polished bowl, went into the kitchen and let it plunk into the sink.

„I’m gonna have a shower, sorry for being a disgusting pig!“ he shouted at his friends on his way to his room.

Ryuu waved him off. „Nah, we’re used to it, man.“ Noya cackled with his stuff in his hands, let the bathroom door bang shut.

He was still smiling when he shed his clothes, when he brushed his teeth, when he danced in and out of the heating shower spray.

The only time Noya really stopped was when his mouth was busy biting the knuckles of his left hand while he was fucking into the tight circle of his right under the shower head, picturing Asahi with his thighs spread so wide they almost ripped the fabric of his training shorts, stuffing four of his own fingers into his ass, stretching himself as wide as he could on the linoleum floor, moaning and trembling as he ground down on his own hand while Noya squeezed the base of his cock tightly to keep Asahi right on the edge, whispered into his shaking jaw line: _Are you ready for me yet?_

It felt like it got dragged out of him when he came, his dick so hard for it, practically bursting his load against the tiles. He could feel it in his muscles and sinews afterwards, a simmer now, but still there, still making him want and yearn and crave Asahi. That man who was still good at spiking balls years after he stopped playing seriously, who challenged Noya to their own little game although he must have known that he would lose, just because he enjoyed playing with him.

When Noya was lying in bed, the royal and turquoise blues of the Tokyo Sea Life Park blurring into the powder pink of Mt. Yufu’s cherry blossoms on his walls, he set his alarm for four thirty and smiled.


	6. 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the part where it gets kind of steamy, so I ask you to please pay attention to the tags again, in case there is anything you might not like. Some of those tags don't apply to this chapter, but rather to the last one. You can write to me if you'd like to know more about those tags. :)
> 
> ALSO, the super talented @gaesensei did some amazing fanart of one of the scenes in this chapter!!!! You can see it at the end, and it is so cute, and you should definitely follow her and check out more of her art!!
> 
> Now go and have fun!

Noya got roughly six hours of sleep that night. Nevertheless, he sprang up from his bed at four thirty in the morning like a young chick, if a little disoriented.

After he’d fumbled out something to wear and gotten himself dressed, he shoved his uni stuff into his backpack and headed out the door into the dark morning.

The days had been getting longer, but not really warmer. Noya crammed his hands into the pockets of his windbreaker and dug his nose into his scarf. Maybe he could summon Asahi’s scent again? Noya focussed his mind on that moment in the library, when Asahi’s scarf had hit him in the face. But it was a futile attempt. It had just been too long since he’d run into him in, and the memory was faded.

Well, that wasn’t really such a problem, since he’d be seeing Asahi now. He’d see Asahi smile and nod and exist and maybe be close enough to smell him again and talk to him. _Actually_ talk to him. Longer than five minutes! Noya would ask him all of the questions, like what did Asahi like about the poem, how did he know it, what did he like about love poetry, why he had given up volleyball, if he was gay or _extremely_ gay like Noya suspected, if he was at all into dating Noya, if there was a couch in the kitchen with a sturdy upholstery into which Noya could drill him.

All very important questions that Noya was bursting to hear the answers to.

His heartbeat accelerated as soon as he saw the creaky front door of Drip and Drop, his breath rising in a thick fog in front of his face. A sallow golden glow shone from the window front onto the pavement. Only the lights around the register and serving counter had been turned on, casting the seating area with its high-backed chairs into shadows. For all the time Noya had spent at the coffee shop in the last couple of weeks, this was the first time he really appreciated its cozy atmosphere.

Noya looked at his phone. It was a little bit after five. Judging by the light, Asahi was already inside, but Noya couldn’t see him anywhere. He was about to knock when he saw Asahi emerge from the kitchen. The apron around his hips was a crisp white, a clear sign for a so far smooth baking process. He stopped at the coffee machine to apparently froth up milk in a metal jug. His hair was tied back in a half bun again and glistened like molten chocolate under the warm lamplight. 

Noya only remembered to knock when he saw Asahi peer at the clock over the kitchen door. His face lit up instantly when he saw Noya waving at him, and Noya thought that maybe some of that got transferred on to him, because he felt something bright and hot in him flare, too. What _was_ that?

As soon as Asahi unlocked the door, Noya was all up in his face again. „Good morning!“ he yelled at Asahi, _Asahi_ , who didn’t mind the noise, but just smiled warmly and replied, „Good morning, Nishinoya-San.“

Noya stepped into the dim coffee bar and said, „Nobody calls me that, actually. Just Noya is fine.“

„Okay, Noya-San,“ Asahi agreed as he relocked the door, „But please call me Asahi, then.“

Noya’s heart did a sick flip in his ribcage. „Alright, Asahi-San!“

Asahi blushed slightly and quickly returned to the coffee machine. „I just foamed up some milk and was thinking to fix you a caramel latte, if that’s okay?“

„Are you seriously asking me that? Fuck yes, that’s okay!“

Asahi giggled, honest to God _giggled_. His movements were practiced as he prepared the drink. „You have barista experience as well, I see,“ Noya commented.

Asahi glanced at him. „A little. I actually started out as a barista here, but it became soon apparent that my skills lay elsewhere when I dropped five drinks in one hour and almost burnt my colleague’s face with the milk frother.“

Noya snorted as Asahi handed him a huge mug brimming with coffee. When he dug around for his wallet, Asahi just waved him off and gestured towards the chairs. „Thank you,“ Noya said, exaltation bubbling up further in him, because wasn’t this kind of like a date? It was, right?

They sank down into the cushions opposite from each other while Noya chucked down his bag next to his seat. Asahi had brought a much smaller mug for himself, of which he took a sip. He looked curiously at Noya as he put it down, his face half in shadow. „You said you wanted to talk about love poetry?“

„Yes!“ Noya put down his mug with a clank. „More specifically, I wanted to ask you stuff about Extinguish My Eyes.“

Asahi froze in his seat. „The, the poem that I quoted to you, you looked it up?“ He licked his lips. „In the library?“

„Before that, actually,“ Noya answered simply, „I want to write a paper on it, that’s why I was looking up references in the library.“ Which actually wasn’t true, but Asahi didn’t need to know that he had awakened an incomprehensible obsession in Noya with his recital. „Which is also why I wanted to talk with you, hopefully an expert, about it.“

Asahi stared at him, then dropped his gaze to his mug. His eyes were apparently caught by the milky swirl of his drink. His cheeks bloomed like a rose as he mumbled, „You, you looked up the poem. After I recited. Well, after I forced you to listen to my recital. You looked it up, and you want to write a paper on it.“

Yeah, wasn’t that what Noya had been saying? But fuck if _he_ knew what he’d been saying, he could hardly tear his eyes away from Asahi’s red cheeks. „Yeah! I looked up some basics, like that it’s from this Austrian guy whose name I can’t pronounce and that it was published in this Stunden-Buch? In a book about religious poetry. Oh wait, a cycle of religious poems, if anybody can fucking believe that. So I’m gonna have to tweak it a little bit to convince my professor that it’s a poem about love and also somehow related to Japanese literature, I guess. I thought maybe you could help me with that?“

The flush on Asahi’s face had invaded his neck and ears again, his expression petrified. Not a word left his lips. Noya scrutinized him intensely, noticing every twitch and flutter on his face, uncertainty slowly tying his stomach into knots. Maybe this hadn’t been such a great idea after all.

Asahi hid his face behind the tiny mug in his big hands. Taking a nervous sip of his own latte, Noya dipped his nose accidentally in the milky fluff. Asahi’s moment of distraction was an immense help in wiping the foam discreetly off the tip of his nose. Once Noya set his mug down again, he felt pierced by Asahi’s bright eyes peering at him over the lip of his own mug. Noya didn’t know what he could have said in that moment, captured by those eyes, but he doubted he could have pressed any words through his constricted throat. There was a sweet sense of déjà vu in that.

„I’m sorry, it’s just… I noticed you in here, before,“ Asahi said, his voice muffled by the ceramic in his hands and Noya’s heart stopped, „You’re pretty. Loud, you know? So I noticed you laughing or, or talking with your friend in here when I got out the fresh goods. You seemed nice, unafraid somehow. Honest? I don’t know, just. I heard you talking about your university class that morning and, didn’t really think about it, I guess, just quoted the poem to you.“ He huffed a helpless laugh. „I didn’t even notice how incredibly weird and rude and _forward_ that was until. You didn’t really react to it, and, just-“ 

Asahi took a breath and lowered his mug, eyes almost flashing in the dim light, words clear and tripping over each other. „It’s just kind of amazing to me that you wold want to learn more about this weird thing I did. I don’t think a lot of people would want to.“

Asahi’s lips curved into a smile, soft and sincere, eyes open like the sea. „I guess you’re just really something else.“

Noya tried to control his breathing, but it was difficult when his heart was hammering against his chest like that. A hot flush crawled down his back, making his skin feel tight, making his fingers itch and burn. There it was again, that craving, that yearning, he knew now that this was exactly that, a yearning, a _longing_ for that blushing man in front of him, for his face and his hair and his hands and his words and his feelings. Noya wanted it all, wanted to hoard it, wanted to stuff himself with it like a hamster until he was full to bursting with it. Almost like the first time, when he had stood there spellbound, but so much more faceted and rich now and Noya still didn’t _understand_.

The sense of déjà vu rose and crashed on him like a surge. Noya cleared his throat and almost rasped, „Can you recite it to me again?“

„Extinguish My Eyes?“ Asahi asked, surprised, „Right, right now?“

„Yes. Would you?“

Asahi’s brows were furrowed in confusion, but he replied, „Okay, sure.“ 

Noya interrupted him just as Asahi was taking a deep breath. „No, I mean, yes, but over there?“ He pointed to the illuminated serving counter.

„Oh,“ Asahi said, smile turning almost playful, „Okay, why not.“

They stood up, walked over the serving counter. It was still a conscious effort for Noya to breathe normally. And then they stopped right in the spot where Asahi had grabbed his hand a few weeks back. Just like he did now, encircling Noya’s wrist while Noya shaped the grip on a paper cup with his fingers. Asahi smiled a little at Noya’s dedication to reenactment.

He took a deep breath again and Noya thought _Maybe I’ll get it now, maybe I’ll understand what is going with me, maybe he’ll make me see_

He looked straight into Asahi’s warm eyes, and Asahi looked back, his voice low and laced with an underlying message that Noya was struggling to read. Or maybe that was just him? God, he just didn’t fucking _know_.

„Extinguish my eyes, I’ll go on seeing you.“

Noya had to focus hard not to gasp. The hot flush spread further, took over every cell and every molecule until they were all a throbbing mess, vibrating to the heavy beat of his own heart.

„Seal my ears, I’ll go on hear-“ 

„What, what _is_ that?“

It just shot out of Noya as if through a leak in a dam, pushing against the cracks in the brickwork until it all burst.

Asahi tilted his head in bewilderment. „What is what?“

„I don’t know!“ Noya exclaimed, „This!“ And he seized Asahi’s hand and pressed it right over his thundering heart.

Asahi’s face recolored a deep crimson. Noya felt his fingertips twitch against the convulsions behind his ribs. „I, I, I,“ he stammered.

„What the _fuck_ is that? I don’t get it, like it’s there all the time, except not like this, but I can still feel it somehow, and it’s making me all _obsessed_ with you, with like every little thing about you like your voice and your face and your opinions, God, like it’s almost creepy, but I can’t really stop, and also I don’t want to, but it’s there all the fucking time, and it makes me want to do these _things_ , like, like super appropriate things nothing weird I swear, and I know it has something to do with that stupid-ass poem, because that’s when it started, but _I don’t get it_.“

His heavy breathing had wound up into panting, and he was crowding Asahi against the wall now and God, he smelt so _good_ , but Noya just rushed on because fuck it, _fuck_ it. „It’s gotta be something weird, right, like, like, I don’t know, a fucking Austrian curse from beyond the grave, I mean you gotta be majorly fucked up if you write _cycles_ of poems or I mean are you a fucking witch or something? Just, I don’t know!“

Asahi’s back was pressed flush against the wall, his hand kneading right over Noya’s heart. „Are, are you serious?“

„Yes! No!“ Noya yelled, „I don’t know, okay, I just, I don’t know! Just help me out here!“

Asahi swallowed, and he was panting now, too. „Yes.“

Noya couldn’t fucking _take_ it anymore. „Yes _what_ , I don’t fucking-“

It poured out of Asahi in one breath, voice cracking with something, „Yes, I’m a witch, okay, and if you want to break the curse you have to kiss me.“

Noya lost only a tiny second to the white noise in his head before he surged upward. He threw his arms around Asahi’s neck, felt Asahi’s hand claw into his sweater and pull him up. 

And then his lips were right there, right on Noya’s, and they were wide and full and so fucking plush that Noya had to get more and more, pressing and rubbing and kissing him, kissing Asahi. He was so pliant and inviting, just letting Noya in and take everything from him and Noya was insatiable, he wanted it all right fucking now. He sucked Asahi’s lower lip between his teeth, and Asahi moaned, oh God, and just, Noya had to stop, he really, he needed to stop.

So he did, breathing heavily, looking up at Asahi with his spit-slick lips and flushed face, and then they both just broke out into laughter. As if on cue, at the exact same time, because how could they not when they were being so amazingly stupid. It filled Noya up to the brim, and Asahi’s laughter sounded just like back then, when Noya had dumped his coffee all over him, loud and deep and genuine and still so stunningly beautiful. Noya couldn’t help himself, he was still huffing in laughs when he pulled himself up again and pressed his mouth to Asahi’s, feeling Asahi’s breath puff against his cheeks in fits of giggles.

Noya licked into Asahi’s mouth, and the laughter stopped. There was only a shuddery breath when Noya licked into him, stroked Asahi’s tongue with his own, pushed it in deep. He tasted sweet, like he’d tried some of his dough just before Noya arrived, and then he moaned again, quiet and soft. It was like being submerged in fire. Noya jumped on instinct, wrapped his legs around Asahi’s middle and found a moment to be grateful for Asahi’s quick reflexes when strong arms caught him around his ass and waist.

Asahi now looked _up_ at Noya, eyes wide with astonishment and so ready, so open and Noya wanted to claim that, wanted to brand himself all over Asahi. His right hand buried itself in Asahi’s hair, which was surprisingly thick and absolutely _made_ for Noya to pull Asahi’s head back with. So he did. Just slightly, to test the waters, just a little bit of pressure. Asahi’s breath hitched, the backward movement of his head exposing his throat to Noya like a rabbit to a wolf.

He was just waiting. With Noya’s hand fisted in his hair, a heavy breath and eager eyes, he waited.

Noya dipped his head and fuck, the angle was _perfect_. Asahi parted his soft lips immediately, meeting Noya’s tongue halfway. It was slow and heartstoppingly deep, interspersed with gasps and sighs that had Noya clinging tightly to Asahi’s solid frame. Noya didn’t think, just rolled his hips and okay yes, that was his rock hard dick rubbing against Asahi’s abs and motherfucking _God_ , did it feel good. Asahi’s tongue twitched against Noya’s as he dug his fingers into Noya’s ass, pushing him even closer and literally anything could happen now, Noya was so ready for it, and he thought that Asahi was, too. 

A shrill sound reached Noya’s ears, like an alarm, an egg timer going off, because that was what it was, an egg timer. Asahi froze and then instantly lowered Noya to the ground. He used the opportunity to slither down Asahi’s body like a snake, grinning at the way Asahi bit his lip and never took his eyes off of Noya.

„I, I’m sorry, just a second,“ Asahi mumbled and hurried into the kitchen.

„Take your time!“ Noya called after him. Because Noya definitely needed some to calm his raging cock down. He adjusted it in his pants as best as he could with it being so hard and uncooperative. Afterwards, he ran his fingers through his hair, root to tip.

The familiarity of the act managed to calm him down somewhat, but giddiness sparked under the surface of his skin like a fuse. Noya pressed his fingers briefly against his mouth, almost expecting it to feel different somehow, but of course it didn’t.

Asahi emerged from the kitchen with fucking oven mittens on his hands. It was only then that Noya realized what a mess he’d made out of Asahi’s hair, the hair tie hanging on to the strands through sheer will and positive thinking. 

He looked fucking adorable.

Asahi met Noya’s mirthful gaze head on, but didn’t come closer, shuffling instead awkwardly in front of the kitchen door. Obviously, Noya was having none of that. He stepped right up into Asahi’s space, went up on his tip toes for which Asahi better be fucking grateful for and crossed his arms behind Asahi’s neck. Asahi laid his oven mitten incased hands on Noya’s waist, fucking hell, could there be a cuter dork than this?

„Did you successfully prevent another minor fire?“ Noya asked and wriggled his eyebrows.

Asahi smiled crookedly. „Yes, and my dismissal for exceptional reasons, I guess.“

Noya grinned. „Perfect,“ he muttered, already hooked again by Asahi’s bright eyes, leaning upward while Asahi moved down, meeting him exactly halfway.

The kiss was almost chaste, but made Noya just as hungry. He licked at the seam of Asahi’s kiss swollen lips, slipped inside, pressed even closer. But Asahi’s nervous fingers squeezing him through the oven mittens was a clear sign that they were running out of time.

So Noya parted from Asahi’s sinful mouth with one last lick. As he lowered himself back on his feet, he watched Asahi swallow, his eyes dart over Noya’s face with something like wonder.

„Noya,“ Asahi rasped, cleared his throat and Noya’s heart thumped. He was definitely not going to alert Asahi to the fact that he’d forgotten to use any honorific.

„Noya,“ Asahi repeated, accompanied by another thump, „Are you free tonight?“

„Yes! No! Wait,“ Noya shouted, „I have practice tonight, but I’m free afterwards, like at ten-ish. And I know you were gonna ask me out, so yes, definitely, absolutely!“

Asahi laughed. „Great. Do you think you would like to get something to eat after practice? Maybe we can talk more about your paper, then.“

„Totally!“ Noya agreed, very deliberately burying all thoughts about that paper in his subconscious. „Can I have your number? We can text about where we want to go, and I can send you all the volleyball memes I have saved.“

Asahi grinned. „Sure, sounds like a treat.“

„No, Sir,“ Noya assured him as he handed Asahi his phone, watching on in amusement while Asahi wiggled his hand free from the oven mitten, „The treat in this situation is you.“

„That doesn’t even make sense,“ Asahi replied, but his snort and blush were definitely worth saying something so dumb. 

Asahi returned Noya’s phone. He’d saved his contact under _Azumane Asahi_ , which Noya changed immediately to _Adorableness Incarnate_.

Beaming, Noya slipped his phone back into his windbreaker. „Awesome, I’ll text you so you’ll have my number, too.“

„Thank you,“ Asahi said.

There was a moment of silence before Noya sighed, „I guess this is where I leave, huh.“

The regret on Asahi’s face made Noya feel like he’d just received a deadly serve. „I think so. I still have a lot of work to do before we open the shop.“

„Then I’m not gonna stand in your way of baking cute shit,“ Noya declared and walked over to the armchairs to pick up his bag.

Asahi was already unlocking the creaky door when Noya turned around, looking a little gloomy. So Noya quickly dug out his phone and sent him a pizza emoji. It was kind of like the first one in his list, and Noya had to be fast, so pizza emoji it was. There was a ding from somewhere in the kitchen, but Asahi didn’t seem to notice.

Noya sauntered over to Asahi. The sky was still pitch dark and the street only illuminated by yellow lamplight. A few early workers scurried along the side walk, and Noya would join them soon enough, but right now he was still standing in the open doorway, the scent of ground coffee beans and rising dough wafting out towards the night.

„Do I get a goodbye kiss?“ Noya asked, tilting his head sideways and holding out his cheek. His chance was not really high, but a bro could try.

To his delight, Asahi huffed a laugh and warned, „Only this time.“

His warm breath drifted over Noya’s cheek first. Just as his lips skimmed Noya’s skin, he turned his head and captured Asahi’s mouth with his own. Asahi smiled, but granted Noya a fleeting kiss before pulling away.

Asahi looked at Noya with contemplative amusement before he established, „You’re going to be insufferable, aren’t you?“

Noya beamed his brightest smile. „So much!“

There was a chuckle and then just the gentlest smile Noya thought anyone ever directed at him. „I’ll see you later, Noya-San.“

„Looking forward to it!“, Noya said and meant it with every fibre of his heart.

Asahi still smiled at him through the glass as he locked the door again. Noya waved cheerfully at him and practically skipped away.

Not one fuck did Noya give about where he was walking, he just scrambled for his phone, opened the Sailor Starlight chat and started rambling. About Asahi, the poem, their date, Asahi, his oven mittens, his hair, getting up early, Asahi, their date. In the end, he sent off a six minute long voice message into the chat and had no reservations about that. 

Just as he was about to sink his phone back into his pocket, it pinged.

_Can I take this as a hint on what you would like to eat tonight?_

Noya’s grin was huge on his face as he typed. _I’m totally down with pizza, but anything is fine  
As long as it’s not too expensive  
I am really living that broke student lifestyle_

He added a couple of the flying packets of money.

Asahi’s reply came quickly.

_I’ll have to rethink this, then. I was actually expecting you to fly me to Hokkaido in your private jet so we could get real miso ramen._

_Like you’re fucking Aggretsuko or what?  
If you were a cute red panda then maybe_

_But since I am a 1.86m tall human man you’re not going to treat me right? Harsh._

Noya almost gasped. The little shit!

_So I guess your bitch persona emerges when there’s no face-to-face interaction because you’re too chicken shit to let it out otherwise huh  
Noted_

Asahi typed. Stopped, typed again. Stopped. Typed for a long time, stopped. Then just sent: _I feel exposed now._

Noya laughed. _I gotcha so good man_ , he wrote, and then continued, _But we still don’t know to which cheap ass hole in the wall we’re gonna go to tonight_

_There’s a shokudo close to UTokyo. We could try that?_

_Sounds good!!!  
Is it called Marublabla?  
I’ve been to Marublabla before_

_Morikawa it’s called._

_Oh yeah I’ve been there before  
It’s good! We should go there!!_

_Okay. I’ll be there at quarter past ten. You can come join me whenever your practice is finished?_

_Yes!!!  
I’m looking forward to it!!!_

Noya was debating which excited emoji to send him when Asahi answered: _Me, too. A lot._ And then Noya just pressed his phone against the bouncy ball that was his heart and let out a strangled groan towards the sky. 

Noya had a fantastic day. He got zero uni stuff done, got caught in snow rain without an umbrella, stepped in dog shit and almost dropped his keys into a manhole.

He didn’t really register any of that, though, much less care about it. Because every free minute of the day he had, he spent texting Asahi.

They covered a range of topics. They went from their volleyball idols to which kind of cult they would join if they were forced to, from the ascendants of their zodiac signs to taking quizzes to find out what kind of bread they were.

Noya thought of the man he had startled into banging his head against a door and running from him as he read the words of the same man on his phone: _Of course you’re garlic bread. It’s obnoxious, but everybody loves it anyway._

He was going to have a lot of fun unravelling this man at the seams.

At practice, Noya leapt like a frog. Not one ball slipped past his wrist and Makiyama gave him an extra painful clap on the back for it. After clean up, the team handed over their present for their coach’s newly born daughter; twenty packages of diapers and a volleyball. Their coach was grateful, but had the nerve to hold something like a speech? Noya spent it not listening to anything and watching the handles of the clock tick by. At nine to ten, Noya was sprinting towards the showers. 

He made fast work of it, five minutes tops. Noya would need that extra time if he wanted his hair to look its perfectly sickest. Oh, and he needed to go to the drug store! Shit, he couldn’t forget about that, he needed those condoms, because he definitely, absolutely wanted to fuck Asahi. Whether Asahi was down for it had to be seen, of course, although his earlier enthusiasm was probably a good sign? Noya tried not to recall their kissing… or make out session? It had kind of been more like a make out session, especially with all the grinding and the boners and, and the… the tongues…

Well, Noya _tried not_ to recall their make out session. While Noya would probably not be the first or the last person to get a hard-on in this locker room, he would prefer to retain some of his dignity. So he focussed as hard as he could on putting on his killer outfit. It was literally just tight jeans with a black shirt, but since Noya’s normal wear consisted of a variety of sweats and sweaters, it definitely qualified as killer in his book.

By the time Noya had coiffed his hair into his gravity defying signature style and even spritzed on some of the cologne he hadn’t touched ever since he got it for Christmas from his grandma, it was ten past ten. And he still needed to go to the drug store. Noya stepped out of the gym and took out his phone.

He fired off a quick text: _Hey! On my way, will be there in like 10, 15_ and tried not to undo his shower by walking too fast.

In front of the drug store, his phone vibrated with an incoming message.

_Okay, thank you for letting me know. I’m already there. This place was closer to my apartment than I thought, everything looks so far away on this map app._

_It’s cuz you have long legs_ , Noya replied.

Knowing drug stores, the potentially embarrassing products were probably in the back. Of course, Noya felt not a smidgen of embarrassment as he inspected the selection of condoms the store had on offer. He settled for a black and pink package that called itself Glamorous Butterfly, because those were definitely the gayest condoms, and Noya was hopefully about to have gay sex so that fit.

Another vibration made Noya smirk. Asahi was apparently impatient, huh, who would have thought. Noya pulled his phone out again and pouted. The text wasn’t from Asahi, but from Ryuu.

_Yo I vacated our apartment and I’m on my way to Kiyoko’s  
She says have fun btw  
You better take him back to ours I fucking vacuumed but don’t let him into the kitchen it’s gross in there  
You go get your man and your D!!_

Grinning, Noya snapped a pic of the condoms in his hand with the accompanying text: _Thanks, bestest bro of bros :))_

Noya walked up to the register, payed and was out of the store in under 30 seconds. He checked his phone on the way to the shokudo, smirked a little bit at Asahi’s response: _I guess it could be. But that would mean that people with long legs are constantly lied to about how much time it will take them to go somewhere by an app. Do we want to live in that kind of world?_

His fingers itched to give a stupid reply, but no, writing now would take precious seconds away from walking to Moriblabla. Noya power walked through the cold as fast as he could, not letting himself get distracted by the occasional vibration of his phone.

The entrance to Moriblabla looked like the entrance to any residence if it weren’t for the menu board on the street. Noya shouldered the door open. He vaguely sensed the smell of broth and soy sauce, but was more preoccupied with the big figure huddling at one of the Western style tables. Noya smiled, apparently an automatic reaction to seeing Asahi. His date, his _date_ , looked as quietly stylish as he’d looked the day before in the changing room. Dark pants, white dress shirt under a black sweater with the shirtsleeves rolled up and collar poking out. His hair was undone, too. As Noya stepped closer, he saw how it curled slightly around his face, the tips just going past his chin.

Noya was almost aching to bury his hands in it again. But he didn’t, because he ventured that Asahi wasn’t a big fan of having his hair molested in public, especially if it would lead to some more tonsil hockey. It was just… Noya _wanted_ some kind of contact, some kind of acknowledgement that they had been close, so intimately close. As he came up behind Asahi, he noticed the delectable stretch of skin on his exposed forearm resting on the table. Noya didn’t even think, just reached out with two of his fingers while he rounded the table, skimmed the pads over the feather soft skin of Asahi’s lower arm, slid them over the sinews of his wrists and up into his palm.

Asahi caught his fingers just as he was about to brush them over Asahi’s own digits. Their eyes met. Noya smiled, because that touch _did_ something to Asahi, it was so obvious in his reddening cheeks and heated gaze. Noya wondered if he was thinking about this morning, too.

Asahi released Noya’s fingers after stroking them once with his thumb. Noya plopped own into his chair with a heavily beating heart.

He wriggled his eyebrows and started with, „Hello, Toast-San.“

It was apparently the right thing to say, judging by the laughter that tumbled out of Asahi. „Can you believe that?“ he asked, „It even said ‚flavorless and floppy‘. I don’t think I’ve ever been slandered by a quiz before.“

„And you dare give me shit about being garlic bread. How could you, it’s awesome,“ Noya huffed as he peeled himself out of his winter wear.

Asahi grinned. „I don’t know what you mean, I said everybody loves garlic bread.“

„Ha! I knew you were going to cave immediately when we’re face-to-face.“

Asahi giggled just as the waitress approached them with her notepad. Noya was fucking starving and made extra, extra sure that the waitress had put down a large portion of rice for him. Smiling at his antics, she turned her gaze to Asahi. He was looking up at her as he gave his order, head tilted slightly and hair grazing his cheek. Noya watched as the waitress jotted it down, her cheeks blushing faintly.

_Oh yeah_ , Noya thought, drinking in everything about this gorgeous man in front of him, _You and me both_.

After they ordered, the waitress immediately returned with their drinks. Asahi gave him an unimpressed look as he accepted his beer choice. „Everybody thinks they’re being hilarious the first time around,“ he commented, glancing at the sweating bottle of Asahi beer in Noya’s hand.

„That’s because it _is_ hilarious. And I will keep doing it, and it will still be hilarious, each and every time.“

Asahi’s lips twisted into an unintentional smile. „How was your day?“ he asked.

„Amazing!“ Noya replied and went off on a lengthy retelling of his day in its entirety. It started with informing his friends about his amazing date, to which Asahi flushed beautifully, and ended with hitting every ball back in practice. He consciously left out the part where he had bought condoms in the hopes that Asahi would be okay with Noya screwing him into his mattress. 

„And that was an amazing day?“ Asahi asked doubtfully as their food arrived.

Noya gave that a two second thought before replying, „Yeah, it was amazing.“

„Also the part where you almost lost your keys?“

„Oh yeah, I mean that was more like substandard, but we made out at the beginning of it and texted all the time throughout so my verdict stays the same.“

„Oh,“ Asahi said, smiling and blushing into his oyakodon. He cleared his throat. „I, I liked that, too. A lot.“

Noya smirked. „Uh huh. And the rest of your day?“

„That was okay. I had classes over lunch and then slept a little in the afternoon.“

Noya stared at him over the mountain of rice and grilled fish in his chopsticks. „What kind of classes?“

„Sewing patterns. I study at Bunka, Garment Creation.“

Noya raised his eyebrows. „You’re not at UTokyo?“

Asahi shook his head, the tips of his hair swishing against his chin.

„But I saw you there? In the library? We ran into each other, and you smelt really good?“

„Oh,“ Asahi said, looking abashed, „Uhm, thanks. Actually, Bunka and UTokyo share library privileges. The Faculty of Letter’s library has much more translations of European poetry, and I usually go there first when I’m looking for something from a European poet.“

„Oho! So I could totally go to Bunka and borrow a book on… something patterns and design garments? Wait, what was it you study?“

„Garment Creation.“

Noya chewed on his food thoughtfully. „Aha.“

Asahi smiled. „I just make clothes, really. Like this one.“

With one swift movement, he pulled his coat that had been draped over the back of his chair forward and handed it to Noya. It was the same light grey coat he’d been wearing yesterday in the changing room. Noya rubbed his hands clean on his own jeans, stroked his fingers over the material. From up close he could see that the fabric wove into a very fine geometrical pattern. The cut was clean with a short, standed collar. 

„You made this? Wait, let me say that again,“ Noya said, and then just for emphasis, „You _made_ this?“

Asahi nodded. Noya thumbed along the black buttons and repeated, „You made this with your own two hands?“

Asahi took a bite from his bowl and nodded again. „And a sewing machine, yes.“

Slowly, Noya turned his gaze back to him. „What the fuck,“ he said.

„Okay? I mean, did you think clothes grow on trees-“

„No! It’s just, this is really cool!“ He raised the coat up in his hands, showing it to Asahi as if he wasn’t the one who created it. With his own two fucking hands! „You made this, like you had an idea and came up with a sketch and everything, and at the end you had this coat. Come the fuck on, that’s cool!“

„Oh,“ Asahi just said. Because he apparently intended to kill Noya with his cuteness, he tucked a loose strand of hair behind his hair before murmuring, „Thank you.“

Noya passed the coat back to Asahi, who draped it over his chair again. „So you decided to go into design instead of trying out for a volleyball scholarship?“

„Yeah. I mean I don’t know if I would have been able to land a scholarship, anyway. I liked playing, especially in a team, but it wasn’t something I wanted to base my future on.“ He shrugged as Noya shoveled more food into his face. „And I always enjoyed sewing.“

„When did you learn?“

„When I was about eleven,“ Asahi replied, „My grandpa taught me.“

„Your grandpa?“

„Yes, he taught himself how to sew after my grandma died. She was involved in a car accident when my mother was still small. My mother had several dolls that she loved to play with, especially since my grandma would design different dresses and outfits for them all. So when my grandma died and couldn’t sew the doll’s clothes for her anymore, my grandpa learnt how to make them. I asked him about the dolls one day, and he told me this story, and I cried really hard and begged him to show me how to sew.“

Noya imagined a smol Asahi with snot and tears pouring out of him while trying to fit a thread through the eye of a needle. „That is just precious,“ he whispered.

Asahi laughed, unaware of Noya’s mental picture. „I thought so, too. But I soon learnt that I wasn’t interested so much in making clothes for dolls. I wanted to make real clothes for people to wear and cherish and be sad over when they can’t wear them anymore. Because they really loved those clothes.“

„Correction,“ Noya whispered, „ _You_ are just precious.“

Asahi smiled down into his bowl again. The blush and accompanying smile appeared to be an almost permanent fixture on his face now. It made Noya smile, too.

„You seem to be born for the court, though,“ Asahi said, „Did you always want to go pro?“

Noya put down his chopsticks on his empty and polished clean dish. Wordlessly, Asahi pushed his oyakodon over to Noya and just as naturally, Noya started digging into it. As if they had known each other forever, and it was just something that they did, Asahi relinquishing his food for Noya to finish it off.

Noya pushed the rice and chicken down his throat and replied, „Kind of, I mean I didn’t think too much about it in high school, I just wanted to play and I was good at it. In my third year, a couple of scouts approached me and told me to try out for a scholarship, and I was like, sure, why not. Wasn’t like I had lots of golden opportunities lined up in Karasuno.“

Asahi went still. „You’re from Karasuno?“

„Yeah! You know it? It’s in Miyagi.“

„I grew up there.“

Just like that. He said it just like that as if this wasn’t a big fucking deal because _what_ but wait. „How old are you?“

„23.“

Noya slammed his hand on the table, their glasses rattling on the surface. „You can’t be! You literally can’t, because I’m 22, so we would have been on the same volleyball team in high school!“

Since Asahi was a wise man, he was now protecting his beer glass in both of his hands. „I didn’t go to Karasuno High.“

„What, I.“ Noya was at a loss for words, but not for long. „How dare you not go to Karasuno High, we were awesome!“

As Asahi chuckled at Noya’s amazing wit, the hair he had previously tucked back fell into his face. Noya’s fingers itched to push it back again. „I don’t doubt it,“ Asahi placated him, „I attended the high school in Ohira. It was like an hour long commute every morning and evening, but I didn’t mind that.“

„But like, Karasuno High was right there, wouldn’t it have been more convenient? And I mean did you _see_ the gakuran? Or the girls’ uniforms?“

Asahi grinned. „They had gakuran in Ohira, too. And you’re right, it would have been more convenient. But I guess my mum always hated her time at Karasuno High, and it kind of left a mark. By the time my oldest sister was about to go to high school, she wasn’t interested in attending Karasuno High. She really enjoyed her time at Ohira, though, so my second sister and me ended up going there, too.“

Noya huffed, trying not to be pissed at Asahi’s judgmental mum. „Well, I ain’t ever even heard of Ohira High, so your team must have sucked.“

„Oh, no doubt about that,“ Asahi waved him off, „We didn’t even qualify for most of the tournaments.“

„So what you’re saying is you were the Ace of a sucky team from a sucky high school.“

Asahi finished off his beer, his eyes flashing at Noya over the rim of his glass. „So what _you’re_ saying is that you were just buttering me up when you said I was still good.“

Well, fuck. Noya threw up his hands in surrender. „So maybe your team sucked, but you were still pretty good, I will be the bigger man and concede that. But I guess we will never know, because you chose to go to some hillbilly school and not have an awesome coming-of-age experience with me in Karasuno’s volleyball team. We could have fucking played together! That would have been so cool!“

„I don’t know about that,“ Asahi said with a self-deprecating twist to his smile, „I would have probably been really gay for you and tried to hide it. Together with my self-esteem issues, it would have been the height of awkwardness.“

Noya just stared at him as he took another swig from his beer glass. Which was empty. Asahi realized that at the same time as Noya, and they both snorted as Asahi’s glass fogged up. He lowered it back to the table.

„Do you maybe want another, Ohira High’s most amazing Ace?“ Noya smirked.

The pang of disappointment was strong and abrupt when Asahi shook his head. „No, I don’t think so,“ Asahi responded, „But we’re close to a campus, there must be a cheap izakya around here somewhere.“

Noya immediately fumbled for his wallet. „I think I know several, actually. The volleyball team sometimes goes together, and it’s always such a mess.“

„Is that your way of telling me that you’re not allowed in most of those izakayas anymore?“ Asahi asked as he signaled for the waitress.

The lady came over and, being on a gay date like they were, they both got out their money. They exchanged a look, and then Asahi suggested, „Why don’t we pool what we have together and see what we come up with?“

Noya grinned and dug out his cash. „You are so smart, Toast-San.“

In the end, Asahi paid a little bit more than him, but Noya’s dignity shrugged it off. „Since you actually earn money, I guess it’s only fair that you pay more than me.“

„ _And_ I’m your senpai,“ Asahi added with a small grin.

„Oh my God, you are!“ Noya yelled. He summoned all of the moe power that he ever possessed, looked Asahi straight in the eye and breathed, „Please take care of me, Asahi-Senpai.“

There was no reaction. Then Asahi hastily put back his wallet and grabbed for his coat, but all the evasion maneuvers in the world couldn’t conceal the blush expanding from his chin to the roots of his hair. 

Noya pulled his own jacket from his chair and said a cheerful goodbye to the waitress, who returned it with a confused smile and bow. His phone out and already looking for the nearest and hopefully cheapest izakaya, Noya left the shokudo behind Asahi.

Conscious of tripping over his own feet, he only took a couple of slow steps before stopping in the street. There were actually four izakayas close to them, of which Noya had visited three. One he excluded immediately, because it was a shit hole, the other two were actually okay.

„Asahi-San,“ Noya said as he looked up from his phone. And there was definitely something else he wanted to say, but the words vaporized right out of his head when he saw Asahi standing in front of him, snowflakes catching and thawing in his hair while he watched the white crystals swirl in the air.

„Look,“ Asahi said, eyes darting to Noya with an excited gleam, „It’s snowing.“

„I can see that,“ Noya responded, but didn’t spare one glance for what was probably the last snow of the season.

Asahi looked at him, eyes and snow glittering under the streetlight. Fabric rustled and suddenly Asahi put up a rubber duck yellow pocket umbrella. Noya would have laughed if Asahi hadn’t crowded against him, protecting them both with his tiny umbrella from the snow.

There he stood, the street light filtering through the yellow nylon, giving his hair and eyes that golden hue that Noya had seen this morning in the dimly lit coffee bar. Without thinking, Noya brushed back the errant wisp of Asahi’s hair that apparently didn’t want to be tamed.

„Noya-San, I would like to ask you something,“ Asahi said, voice subdued.

„Fire away, pretty boy.“

Asahi smiled wryly at that, but recovered quickly. „This morning, in Drip and Drop. You were really confused and, and agitated. You said you were feeling, or experiencing these things and you didn’t know why. Or what that meant.“ His eyes flit over Noya’s face, studying his expression like a puzzle. „Do you know now what it is that you’re feeling?“

„Yeah, man,“ Noya answered, „You told me you’re a witch and that you put a spell on me, remember?“

There was a pause.

„I kind of assumed you would recognize that that was just a pathetic attempt to get you to kiss me, but-“

Noya laughed. „Okay, okay, I know you’re not a witch. And you should give yourself more credit, you totally got me to kiss you! But honestly?“ Noya shrugged. „I kind of stopped caring about it after we kissed. Which is weird, because I’ve been obsessing about this stuff ever since I met you, but I’m cool with it now.“

Asahi hummed, looked at him thoughtfully. Noya turned his head to the side, wheels turning in his head. With raised eyebrows, he asked, „Do _you_ have an idea what it is?“

Asahi blinked. Slowly, his lips stretched into one of those incredibly gentle smiles again that had Noya’s heart melt into a heated puddle and leak through his ribcage. The answer felt close suddenly, like Noya might just grasp it if he reached out far enough. 

„I think I might,“ Asahi ventured, „but I think you should find that out for yourself.“

Noya groaned. „Boo! Are you my maths teacher? Why don’t you just tell me?“

„Because it wouldn’t help if I’d just tell you. Maybe you wouldn’t believe me. Besides,“ Asahi added with a tilt of his head, „I don’t even know if I’m right.“

„But you’re pretty sure you are?“

Asahi just hummed vaguely, smiling down at him. Although they were basically already standing chest-to-chest, Noya really wanted to wrap his arms around him, quite possibly also his legs. He thought about walking to the izakaya, huddled close under the umbrella, spending their time there drinking and laughing and telling stories. That would be nice. Liquid courage also never hurt if you were planning on seducing somebody. It was just, Noya knew he didn’t need it. The yearning was diluted, but still coursing through his blood like a new kind of plasma that had become vital for his body. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what he wanted. Plus, there was a considerable risk of accidentally getting wasted. Wouldn’t be the first time that happened. Or _Asahi_ could get wasted. And while that would be indubitably hilarious, it wasn’t really how Noya planned to proposition him.

Noya looked at Asahi’s open eyes and the tempting pout of his full lower lip and, it was just, he just didn’t want to wait any fucking longer.

„Do you like popsicles?“

Asahi tilted his head further, like a fucking puppy. „Yeah, I do. But isn’t it kind of cold for that now?“

„Not in my apartment, it’s not.“

Asahi’s eyes lit up like a match. „Oh,“ he said softly. He pressed his lips together and released them slowly. Noya watched every twitch and flutter and didn’t miss the playful but nervous smile that they shaped. „Depends on the popsicles.“

Noya cleared his throat. „Of course, we offer the one and only Gari Gari Kun in flavors soda and grape. Also tamagoyaki, but that one kind of sucks, and nobody touched the box since we tried it.“

Asahi drew nearer, pressing himself as close as human decency allowed on a public street. „Then I guess the grape one will have to make do,“ he said softly.

„Perfect!“ Noya linked his arm with Asahi and dragged him into the direction of his apartment. Since Noya walked everywhere like his feet were on fire, it was easy for him to match Asahi’s quick stride.

„Is it okay to just walk or should we take the train?“ Asahi asked. 

„It’s not that far actually,“ Noya replied, „Like 15 minutes walking. Why don’t you tell me an exhilarating farce from your youthful days in Karasuno, which I could have been a part of if you hadn’t attended the wrong high school, to pass the time?“

Asahi gave him a look. Then he proceeded to tell the story of how he had his gay realization at the young age of eleven when the daughter of the flower shop owner had kissed him, and he’d thought it was kind of gross. It continued with them theorizing about why the whole village would always refer to that flower shop as ‚the‘ flower shop, although there were at least four in town.

In line with Noya’s prediction, they arrived at his apartment building in no time. Asahi swept his eyes over the surrounding area before stepping through the entrance door. „Is it cheap to live here?“

Noya took the stairs three at a time, excitement increasing with every step. „Yes and no. Yes, it’s cheap for the area and no, it’s still expensive as shit.“

„Hm,“ Asahi’s voice echoed through the hallway, „It’s just that this seems more like a business area. Is living here comfortable?“

Noya wriggled his eyebrows at Asahi as he thrust his key into the apartment door. „We make it comfortable.“

They took off their shoes at the entrance. Asahi muttered an uncertain, „Excuse me for the intrusion.“, but Noya waved it off. „It’s just us tonight,“ he said while hanging up his windbreaker.

He pointed at the first door to the left. „That one’s mine. You can make yourself comfortable while I get the popsicles.“

Asahi nodded and disappeared from view. Noya walked to their kitchenette, opened the freezer and just, he needed a second, just a second to hold his burning hot face into the ice cold draft of the freezer. So maybe he was about to have sex with Asahi, but maybe he wasn’t, it was totally cool if Asahi didn’t feel like it, just. Noya kind of really hoped that he would. So did his thirsty dick, almost halfway hard from the possibility alone.

Noya took his time collecting the popsicles from the freezer, did a short breathing exercise to see if it would work. It did, but only until he was standing in front of his own door and faced with the fact that he might get to see Asahi naked. Oh, condoms! Soft-footed, Noya slinked back to the entrance where he had dropped his sports bag. He grabbed the package of condoms and crammed it into the backpocket of his jeans, probably squashing the entire package.

As he opened the door to his room, he was surprised to find it dark. Or at least as dark as it could get considering the billboard. Almost immediately, Noya’s eyes found Asahi standing next to the window. His back turned against the glass, it was difficult to make out his face. When Noya entered the room, his head turned, half of it illuminated by pale pink light, his hair painting soft curves and curls over his face. „This is pretty nice,“ he said, sounding delighted.

Noya walked towards him. „The billboard?“ he asked, voice a little rough.

„Yes, it makes for some nice lighting. Is that why your place is kind of cheap? The billboard, I mean.“

„Maybe, we never asked the landlord about it. Thought it was wiser to stay in oblivion about why this place was affordable.“ He held out the grape popsicle. „Behold, your Gari Gari Kun.“

Asahi smiled. „Thank you.“ He followed Noya towards the bed when he motioned for him to sit down.

Noya unwrapped his soda flavored popsicle and bit savagely into it. Wet sucking sounds emerged from his right. For the sake of his sanity, Noya decided to ignore those sounds and just focus on the quaint clips of Mt. Yufu. 

„Have you ever been?“ Asahi asked.

„To Mt. Yufu? No, but it looks nice. With, like, onsen and shit.“

„Your way with words makes it sound even more beautiful.“

Noya laughed and punched Asahi lightly in the upper arm. „Shut up, I could write poetry,“ he bragged, and that was the wrong thing to do, looking at Asahi was The Wrong Thing to do, because he was sucking ever so lightly on the tip of his popsicle, lips curled into a perfect pout while his eyes sparked at Noya.

The look in them soon turned into one of disbelief when they registered Noya’s clean popsicle stick. „How long did it take you to finish that?“

Half distracted by his begging prick, Noya answered, „Like six bites? I perfected my technique in high school.“

Asahi bit into his ice cream experimentally and asked, „Don’t you ever get brain freeze like that?“

Noya gave a haughty sigh. „You didn’t listen to me. I perfected my technique of eating popsicles, including extracting the precise amount of ice cream I can fit into me without suffering from brain freeze, in high school.“

„Well,“ Asahi drawled as he licked around the left over popsicle on his stick, „If you would have perfected your Libero technique instead, you might already be playing first string by now.“

Noya’s mouth fell open. Lightning quick, he snatched Asahi’s popsicle out of his hands. He tried to look stern, but couldn’t really keep it together seeing Asahi start to giggle. „Are you fucking serious? Little shits like you don’t deserve ice cream.“

„Okay, yes, I’m sorry, that was mean,“ Asahi admitted, still giggling, while Noya polished off his remaining popsicle in revenge. And he didn’t even like grape flavor. He threw the stick on the discarded wrappers next to his bed with a flourish.

Looking at Asahi, he huffed, „You’re lucky I’m fucking mesmerized by your beauty.“

Asahi choked. His eyes were wide as he stared at Noya petrified. „Oh, that. My, my what?“ he asked, but there was almost no inflection in his voice.

„Oh come on,“ Noya grumbled, „If you want to fish for compliments maybe you shouldn’t have offended me so viciously.“

But Asahi didn’t really react to that, just avoided Noya’s eyes and brushed his hair back distractedly. When he looked back at Noya, his expression was flustered and oh, did Noya enjoy that look on him.

„Sorry, it’s just,“ Asahi mumbled and shrugged, apparently at a loss for words.

„Just what?“ Noya probed, inching closer on the bed.

Asahi fiddled with the hem of his sweater and responded, „I don’t know. New.“ And beneath that abashment Noya glimpsed a ridiculous amount of vulnerability for somebody so gorgeous inside and out.

So he turned, folded his right leg onto the bed as he faced Asahi. Noya had always been a fan of direct approaches, but it seemed especially easy to be frank when Asahi needed to hear it. „Okay, serious talk now. I think you’re fucking beautiful, and I have thought so since I met you.“

Asahi blushed deeply. His mouth opened and closed, but out came just a stuttered, „O-Oh.“

Noya crept closer, suppressing his heavy breath. „Kissing you felt incredible, and I want to do it again, like right now.“

It was satisfying to hear Asahi’s breath hitch, to watch him nod and bite his lip. Noya raised himself on his knees.

„And,“ he continued, voice low, knees brushing Asahi’s thigh, „I want to do a lot more than kiss you. Lots and lots more.“

Noya wanted to do it slow, he honestly did. He wanted to come even closer, lean down, kiss Asahi’s neck, maybe graze his lips against his cheek, whisper to him exactly what he wanted to do to him.

Instead, Asahi just surged upward, buried both of his hands in Noya’s shirt, dragging the tails out of Noya’s jeans, and licked at his lips, just quick swipes with the tip of his tongue, begging to be let in.

Noya felt his warm breath on his mouth, his fingers kneading against his ribs. His own breath left him in a huff through his nose as he opened his mouth wide, as he entangled one of his hands in Asahi’s hair, as he stroked Asahi’s tongue with his own, as he swallowed Asahi’s gasp with his mouth.

Something in him gave loose at Asahi’s desperation. Noya took hold of Asahi’s jaw, tilted his head just right for him to delve in deep. Asahi’s shudder trembled through Noya’s fingertips while he fit his entire tongue into Asahi’s mouth. It made Asahi press so close to him that Noya could feel his heart beat against his own sternum. His hands clawed at Noya’s shirt, straining the buttons. Fuck, Noya’s cock was already full to bursting. Asahi’s raw desire made him wet for it, he thought he could feel himself leak into his underwear.

Slowly, Noya withdrew his tongue in favor of dragging it against Asahi’s upper lip, feeling the slight swell of his Cupid’s bow. Asahi’s mouth caught against his own as he mumbled, „No-Noya-San…“

„Just Noya is fine,“ he answered, smiling when Asahi swallowed thickly.

„Okay, Noya.“ He was pleased to hear that Asahi’s voice was rough, too. „I, uh. Do…“

Noya let him feel his grin against the corner of his mouth. „Use your words, pretty boy.“

Asahi was too close for Noya to really see his face, but he still caught the nervous arousal in his eyes. „Do, do you like anal?“

It was like somebody had cracked a vase over Noya’s head. He thought he could feel an increase in temperature from Asahi’s face pressed against his own, like a rising sun. 

Did he, did he like-

„Fuck yes,“ he blurted, tightening his arms around him as Asahi’s fingers dug into his chest, „So fucking much, you don’t even-“

Asahi rushed on, „Do, you want to. To me-“

„Oh my God, yes, yes, I want to, fucking yes, I’ve wanted to for fucking _weeks_.“

Noya didn’t even know anymore what hesitation meant, he just pushed Asahi down onto his bed and climbed on top of him. „Me, me, too, Noya.“ was all Asahi could whisper before Noya took his mouth again.

He pressed himself along Asahi’s body like a glove and smiled when Asahi spread his legs immediately. Sucking and kissing his wet lips, Noya squeezed Asahi’s middle, which made him arch his strong back beautifully. He used the opportunity to grind against Asahi’s crotch and groan against his lower lip, because that was Asahi’s hard cock rubbing against his own and holy shit, he _was_ pretty big. His hand abandoned Asahi’s hair only to grasp his ass, controlling the motions of his hips. 

Asahi sighed and squirmed up and against their humping, panted through his nose harshly and groped at Noya’s back. He flinched in surprise when Asahi tugged roughly at his shirt and pulled it all the way out of his jeans, up his torso. It startled a laugh out of him when it caught against his chin. Asahi didn’t stop brushing his tongue against Noya’s even as he fumbled with the buttons of his collar. Noya was kind of impressed, actually. Even more so when the buttons popped free and the fabric got pulled over his head in record time.

Shame though that the shirt immediately caught again on his buttoned shirt sleeves.

It was Noya’s turn to dissolve into giggles while Asahi snorted. „Why did you have to dress so properly?“ he murmured, grabbling with Noya’s shirt.

Well, that was easy, so he answered simply, „To impress you, obviously.“

Asahi glanced at him, eyes shining like his wet lips in the turquoise light washing through Noya’s bedroom. „You could have probably shown up in a garbage bag, and I would have gone home with you.“

„Oho?“ Noya rubbed himself against Asahi’s erection and smirked when Asahi bit his lips, the movements of his fingers growing more erratic. Then there was an impatient huff, a pull and a rip. A beat of silence. „Well, now I, I’ve already ruined it, so,“ Asahi stammered, and then there was _another_ rip, and Noya’s shirt fluttered towards the bedroom floor.

Noya broke out into giggles again as Asahi kissed his lips and stumbled over his words, „I’m sorry, I’ll, I’ll sew them on again, they were just so tiny and slippery and I’m sorry, I’ll make you a new shirt-“

Noya responded by drawing Asahi’s upper lip between his teeth. When Asahi stopped blabbering, Noya said with a smile, „You don’t have to apologize for something hot and funny.“

Before Asahi could respond, he seized two fistful of Asahi’s sweater and wrenched it upwards. Obediently, Asahi raised his arms. It was a smooth glide from top to bottom, even with Asahi’s shirt bunched under the material. 

Noya stopped breathing when he laid eyes on Asahi’s bare chest, the dusty pink color of his nipples, the dark hair curling over his pectorals and thickening down over his defined stomach. But it was Asahi that gasped, „Noya, you’re so strong.“

He saw Asahi’s eyes glide over his belly, felt his fingers graze against his ribs, heard the sound of fabric strained when Asahi spread his legs imperceptibly wider. Noya grinned. He took hold of Asahi’s wrist and led his wandering fingers over the hardened muscle beneath his skin. „You like that?“ he asked. Asahi’s eyes and deeply flushed face were evidence enough, but Noya enjoyed it even more when he stared at his fingers and sighed, „Yes.“

„Then keep your hands on me,“ Noya instructed as he wedged a hand between them and bit softly into Asahi’s throat. It would have been easier to just lift himself up and get some space to work, but Noya’s dick had certain opinions about being crammed against Asahi’s at all times. Miraculously, he opened Asahi’s belt without a hitch. The button, however, was a fucking bitch to open. At least Asahi didn’t seem to care, squirming under Noya and shivering at his bites and licks and kisses.

Then the button opened with a pop, and the zipper practically bust open. Noya hummed in satisfaction as he finally put his hand on Asahi’s prick through his underwear. He gasped against Asahi’s throat, because those shorts were _drenched_ , and God, another burst of precum wet his hand just as he skimmed the heel of it over the head, fucking _fuck_. Asahi’s cock was so hot and hard, twitching against his palm as he slid further down, only stopping when he curled his fingers around Asahi’s balls.

Fucking God, there were like three handfuls of cock in those pants. Noya twisted his face upward, tracing the shell of Asahi’s ear with his tongue while Asahi almost bit his lip off to keep himself from making any sounds. „Not gonna lie,“ he rasped against Asahi’s ear, „I was hoping you’d be big. Can’t fucking wait to stuff all of that up in me.“

Asahi cleared his throat before asking, „Do you, do you think you could take it?“

„With enough prep, definitely,“ he purred, palming Asahi through his underwear, smiling at the way he ground back against his hand. The wet fabric of the shorts stretched under Noya’s fingers. He slid his thumb over the tip of Asahi’s clothed dick and moaned when he felt it grow even wetter. „God, you’re already _soaked_. That’s so fucking hot, Asahi.“

His hair brushed against Noya’s cheek as he turned his head. His face was so red, and Noya could tell that he had to force himself a little to get it out, but still he mumbled, „It, It’s gonna leak even more when you put in your fingers.“

Noya grinned as his dick jerked in his own pants. „Then what are we fucking waiting for?“

With as much strength as he could muster, he pulled Asahi’s pants and shorts over his hips, down his thighs. And what a pair of thighs they were, with sparse hair and as thick as Noya’s head. He ran one hand along them while the other freed Asahi of the rest of his clothes, including his socks in case one of them forgot.

For a moment, Noya just sat back and looked at this fucking buffet of a man stretched out in front of him. Asahi leant up on his elbows, chest heaving, legs spread and dick weeping. He looked at Noya through the loose hair that had fallen over his face and smiled.

Noya was gonna feast on him so fucking hard.

Swiftly, he bent sideways and slid open the drawer of his nightstand. The bottle of lube was located soon and Noya was about to squirt some of it on his fingers when Asahi took it from him. „Ah, wait,“ he said and Noya wanted to ask why, but then he shut right up because Asahi popped open his flies and stuck his hand into his boxers. „You, too,“ Asahi mumbled and pulled on his trousers.

„Okay, okay,“ Noya squeezed through his tight throat. He raised himself on his knees and helped Asahi with his work, who didn’t make things easier by apparently refusing to relinquish his hold on Noya’s cock. Not that he was complaining.

As soon as his clothing sailed onto the floor, he was back to kneeling on the bed. He couldn’t stop staring at his own dick in Asahi’s hand. Asahi brushed his fingers against it, up the shaft to the tip. Then he took hold of him and rolled down his foreskin slowly, carefully, exposing Noya’s wet glans. Asahi leant down, and Noya thought for a moment that he would lick him and wanted to stutter something about condoms and safe sex. But Asahi just watched and groaned softly as he jacked Noya, sank his lips into his lower lip as precum beaded up on the tip.

It was slow and tight, Asahi made him feel every jerk, and it was so fucking good, he started to move his hips without even wanting to, just moaned and fucked into Asahi’s hand.

„Asahi,“ he hissed. He looked up at Noya, kept fisting him as he raised himself up and captured Noya’s mouth with his own. They kissed and Noya cursed and groaned against Asahi’s lips as he masturbated him. It felt even better when Asahi embraced him with his other arm, holding him close while Noya hung on to his shoulders. He was already so fucking close, could feel it coiling in his gut, making his dick tremor and drip in Asahi’s palm.

„Ah, ah-ha-Asahi,“ Noya panted into his mouth and Asahi stopped, squeezed the base of Noya’s throbbing prick. Just in time, but fucking God did Noya want to cum now.

Their lips made a wet sucking noise as Noya shoved Asahi down onto the mattress. Breathing heavily, he grabbed for the gel, lubed up his fingers and pressed one of them into Asahi’s hole just as pushed his tongue back into Asahi’s mouth.

Noya could feel Asahi shudder against him. His finger wasn’t even all the way in before Asahi gasped, „More, use more.“ Noya smiled as he dragged his teeth over Asahi’s trembling chest and obliged. He listened for Asahi’s strangled moan as he inserted a second finger, glanced down. Fucking shit, Asahi hadn’t been lying. His cock leaked precum like a faucet, droplets gushing out and collecting in the hair on his stomach. It was so hot that Noya had to bite his tongue to keep himself from sucking on Asahi’s drenched glans. Maybe he could cum just from Noya fingering him? Oh God, he should really ask Asahi if he could milk him, get as much cum as he could squirt out of him and make him so sensitive that he couldn’t do anything but shiver and beg.

Noya stuck in a third finger and Asahi took it like a champ, grinding down on it like he’d only been waiting for the addition. He didn’t stop moving his hips down onto Noya’s fingers when Noya started to suck on his nipple. His moans came out louder, a little more unstrained, and Noya was so fucking into that. He just wanted Asahi to enjoy being with him so much. He brushed his left hand down Asahi’s stomach to wrap around his hard dick, but stopped when Asahi broke out into giggles.

Oh, so he was ticklish, too. Huh. Noya pushed his fingers in deep and grazed the fingertips of his other hand over Asahi’s stomach. He could feel the resulting groaned giggles vibrating against his mouth. Even better, though, were the contractions of Asahi’s laughter twitching on the pads of his fingers buried in Asahi’s ass. It felt shockingly intimate.

„Sto-stop, stop! Noya!“ Asahi squealed, catching Noya’s wiggling hand by the wrist and pulling it towards him. It was Noya’s turn to chuckle when Asahi kissed him, still smiling, and bit his cheek in retaliation. „You like to tease me,“ Asahi whispered, his voice fond despite the accusing words. Noya glanced at him, rubbed his fingers deep into Asahi’s hole and said, „Maybe.“

Asahi shuddered, breathed against Noya’s cheek, „Noya, it, I, I’m ready.“

„Okay,“ he said, but there was no need, because _of course_ it was okay, it was more than okay, it was fucking wonderful. With shaking hands, Noya reached for his pants and fished out the horribly crinkled condom package. He ripped the package open, the condoms tumbling out and spraying onto the bed. Asahi snorted while Noya grabbed the first hot pink wrapper he could find.

He knelt back on the mattress and tore the packaging. Asahi crawled up to him over the bed, laid down backwards on the blanket. „Do you, should I wear one, too?“ He asked. Noya raised his eyebrows at him as he rolled the condom over his erection. „Do you want to?“

„It, it’s just,“ Asahi mumbled, „It could get… messy.“ He looked down at his own wet prick laying against his stomach. Noya saw the beads and spots of his precum glistening on his skin and hair. Grinning, he settled between Asahi’s spread legs and bent over him. His grin diluted into a smile when Asahi wrapped his arms around him as soon as he was within reach.

„Then you’re definitely _not_ wearing one.“

Asahi hesitated, then huffed a small laugh against Noya’s lips. They kissed, mouths dragging against each other, tongues touching briefly. When they parted, Noya lowered himself down, bracing his weight with one arm next to Asahi’s head. He lined himself up. The condom was slippery with lube, Asahi’s legs were warm and firm next to him.

Noya looked at Asahi. „Okay?“

His face was flushed in a shade of deep red. Noya thought of the hue he had imagined on Asahi’s cheeks the first time he’d met him, but couldn’t remember it clearly.

It was a whisper, falling out of kiss swollen lips. „Yes.“

He felt Asahi’s muscle twitch and then soften against him, sank into him in one slow thrust. Asahi pressed his lips together and kept his sounds to himself, but his face melted in pleasure, eyes wide, brows raising. His mouth fell open just in time for Noya to catch it in a kiss as he bottomed out.

It was sloppy, uncoordinated and all the hotter for it. „Noya,“ Asahi moaned softly into his mouth, „Noya.“

He withdrew, slowly, leaving Asahi’s body only to move back in again. Noya pulled back again, thrust back in harder, but not faster. It made him feel everything, Asahi so fucking tight around him, so incredibly warm, his body pressing into the bed with Noya’s thrusts. And he did it again, and again, driving in as hard as he could, pulling out, holding it, pushing back in, always harder. Asahi’s breath started to punch out of him in bursts of air and bitten off moans against Noya’s cheek until he turned his head and smothered the noises against his shoulder. He ground his ass right into every one of Noya’s movements.

Noya cried out at the next hit, so deep and so hard, but he knew there was more. He pushed himself up. Asahi dug his hands into Noya’s lower back as he seized the backs of Asahi’s knees and shoved them into the sheets. With Asahi’s hips raised, Noya leant back and watched himself drill in. His mouth fell open in a wordless cry at the sight. Asahi’s hole stretched around his cock, swallowed his thrusts, clenched around his dick almost desperately. He pushed in harder, _further_ , and suddenly it was too much, he had to stop right the fuck now before he shot his load.

Noya groaned harshly and stayed buried as far as he could in Asahi. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple. He stared at the streak of transparent rubber barely visible through his pubic hair and tried to calm his breathing. So that control had kind of slipped from him like butter in a hot pan. Fucking hell.

Sheepishly, Noya glanced up at Asahi. His head was still turned to the side, mouth pressed against his shoulder. His hair was strewn across his face, clinging to the red, damp skin like spider thread. To the, the wet skin.

A cold shiver doused Noya from top to bottom. Asahi was crying.

There was no sound coming from him, only a slight tremble in his chest and throat, tension in his shoulders. Noya reached out his hand. It was probably okay, because that hadn’t been a body or a voice crying out in pain, right, it was most probably okay. But of course it wasn’t always physical pain that made people cry.

The pads of Noya’s fingers dipped into the tears running over his cheek. Asahi flinched violently and scrambled up the bed, throwing Noya out in the process.

Oh shit. Oh _fuck_ , oh shit.

„Asahi,“ Noya mumbled, placed a hand on Asahi’s shoulder, because it seemed neutral enough. He opened his mouth again, but Asahi steamrolled right over him.

„I, I’m sorry,“ he stammered, „I know it’s weird, i-it’s just been, kind of long, and sometimes, just, I, it, I’m sorry, I’ll just turn around.“

Before he could do something so silly, Noya took his face into his hands. He stared deep into Asahi’s wet eyes.

„You’re not in pain,“ Noya determined, because he was a little afraid to actually ask.

Asahi blinked uncertainly at him, shook his head.

Noya narrowed his eyes at him. „Use your words, pretty boy.“

Relief warmed him when Asahi gave him a watery smile. „No, I, I’m not in pain.“

„And you feel fine otherwise,“ Noya continued, „Not sad or scared or…“ or taken advantage of or, or, or-

„No, I feel, I feel fine,“ Asahi replied. A tear squeezed out of the corner of his eye, but Noya thumbed it away. Something in his mind clicked.

Everything was okay. Thank _fucking_ God, everything was okay.

Noya sighed, pulled Asahi down towards him and kissed him thoroughly. He sucked on his upper and lower lip, licked them soothingly before paying extra special attention to Asahi’s talented tongue. He only drew back once he had reduced Asahi to a panting, huffing mess.

„You can cry all you like,“ Noya promised, beaming up at Asahi. When there was no response, he added, „I think it’s kinda hot, actually.“

„The, the tears…?“ Asahi asked, voice high with disbelief.

Noya nodded. „Yes! I mean, they come because you enjoy it, right?“

Asahi’s face flamed up immediately, which was honestly answer enough. So Noya just gave him one of his dirtiest smirks. „Then I want you to cry harder.“

Asahi opened his mouth, but nothing emerged. Noya scooted backward and plopped down on his ass. Asahi apparently needed a little convincing, so Noya patted his thighs invitingly. That did the trick. Asahi crawled up the bed and sat between Noya’s spread legs, wrapping his thighs around Noya’s hips.

As soon as he was settled, Noya pulled him in close, sought his lips again. Their mouths met and parted wetly. Noya wandered down, over Asahi’s chin to his throat. He licked and bit along the length of it, stopping only when he found a patch that made Asahi shiver. It was right over his collarbone, so Noya had absolutely no qualms about sinking his teeth in deep.

Asahi gasped, buried one of his hands in Noya’s hair. It spurred him on, made him suck to the point where it must have been almost painful, but Asahi only moaned. When Noya abandoned his task to explore new lands, he took in the bright red mark he’d left behind and smiled.

With his eyes locked on Asahi’s wonderful chest, Noya asked, „Can I suck on your tits?“

Asahi huffed a laugh. „Haven’t you already?“

Noya looked up at him aghast. „Can a man not want seconds?“

The giggles made a comeback and were such a relief to Noya. „You have a point,“ Asahi admitted, „Suck away.“

Noya grinned and did just that. His nose buried in Asahi’s impeccably groomed chest hair, Noya sucked Asahi’s nipple into his mouth. He kept it low on the teeth, instead teasing it with flicks of his tongue. His hand crept up and Noya watched it roll Asahi’s other nipple and tug at his hair. Asahi groaned, arched his back, offered himself up to Noya’s touches.

He was so busy soaking up Asahi’s moans and tremors that Noya almost jumped when he felt Asahi cup his balls. It made Noya keenly aware of the fact that they were extremely tight and that his cock was, predictably and shamefully, still stiff as a board.

Asahi kissed Noya’s temple and mumbled against it, „Do you want to try it again?“

So fucking much _yes_. Noya nodded so hard he almost head butted Asahi.

Laughing, Asahi leant backwards and was about to let himself fall on the mattress, when Noya caught him by the waist.

„Like this?“ he asked, grinning hopefully.

Asahi nodded. Digging his hands into the bed behind himself, he raised his lower body. Noya’s hands shook slightly again as he took hold of his cock by the base. Asahi canted his hips, there was the warmth and pressure of his entrance opening, and then he slid down Noya’s dick inch by inch. Controlled exhales puffed out of his nose. When he took him to the hilt, Noya could feel how Asahi’s breath left him in a shudder.

Noya clenched his hand around Asahi’s waist and buried the other in the sheets behind him. His eyes swept over Asahi’s body. It shone dimly in the mint green light falling through the window, the dips and mounds of his torso brought into sharp contrast. The shifting colors glinted on the wetness on his stomach. His cock was still so hard. Noya thought he saw it quiver where it rested against his groin.

Carefully, Asahi rolled his hips forward. Noya moved into the motion on instinct, always wanting more and deeper. Asahi ground his ass down onto Noya’s prick tightly, only moving back when they both gasped. Unlike Noya, he didn’t linger.

He rocked his hips forward again onto Noya’s dick, faster, tighter. It made Asahi moan, arch his back a little further, but Noya didn’t miss the way his shoulders tensed as moisture gleamed in his eyes again. He tucked his chin down. As if he could hide from Noya like that. 

Noya glanced down to Asahi’s erection. Drips of pre-cum flowed out of the slit as he watched, collected at the pout of his foreskin before running down the head. The sight made him groan.

„Fuck,“ he whispered, dragging his hand from Asahi’s waist to his stomach. He put it right into the wet mess on Asahi’s abs. Damp hair brushed through his fingers, firm muscles twitched against his fingertips. Noya wrapped his hand around Asahi’s cock, almost smiled at the way it fit into his palm and moaned, „You get so fucking drenched, it’s so hot.“

Asahi made a noise that could have been in agreement, grinding his hips down hard. It made his cock move further into Noya’s hand, fucking into it with the movement. Noya looked up at him, saw the tears falling from Asahi’s chin down on his chest and felt his own dick jerk. „Gonna get you even wetter,“ he promised, „Gonna get you dripping all over yourself and my hand, and then I’m gonna make you shoot off right on my stomach.“

Asahi’s mouth fell open in a pant. „I, I want that, I want to, to cum, Noya-“

„I want you to,“ Noya whispered. He brushed his thumb over the gleaming head, rubbed the foreskin up and down in time with their rhythm. Asahi cried out before he could stop himself, bit down on his lower lip, squeezed his eyes shut. Noya adored the way he arched his back that little bit further, supporting most of his weight with his hands and still rocking his hips down onto Noya’s cock so tightly. 

Almost frantically, Noya disentangled his hand from the sheets. He bent forward and cupped Asahi’s hot cheek. Asahi opened his eyes, tears streaming over both of their skin as he looked into Noya’s smiling face, close enough that it was the only thing Asahi could see. „Tell me what you like,“ he said, anticipation making his voice low.

Asahi took a couple of breaths before murmuring, „Your thumb, on, on the slit.“

Immediately, Noya obeyed. He swiped over the slit, rubbing the pad of his thumb into it. He exhaled harshly when Asahi’s fluid leaked through, rubbed it all over the head of his dick. A sound got stuck somewhere in Asahi’s throat.

„What else, come on,“ Noya urged, fitting his palm along Asahi’s jaw.

He breathed again, but all that focus wasn’t enough to stop himself from whining. „Noya, j-just your fingers, on, on the top, just faster, please Noya, just, just faster, I-“

He started jerking Asahi’s cock in earnest. Wet, slippery noise rose up from Noya’s hand and went straight to his aching dick. He watched Asahi’s flushed face. His jaw clenched and Adam’s apple bobbing with strangled sounds, Asahi looked right back at him. A sob tore out of his mouth, and Noya moaned. „Fuck, _fuck_ , cry _harder_ , come on, I want you to fucking bawl with how good it makes you feel, fuckin’-“

Asahi gave him another whine, high-pitched and needy. His head fell back, but Noya leant forward and caught him by the hair. He didn’t want to give Asahi any excuse not to look at him, not even for a second. Asahi hiccuped, hips shoving into Noya’s cock desperately, hole clenching and twitching around him tightly.

Asahi’s hair spilled over Noya’s fingers like melted gold. The pale pink light of the cherry blossoms bled over his skin, making the sweat on it glisten, his eyes glitter with tears. 

„Oh my God,“ Noya whispered, captivated by this gorgeous mess in front of him, „You’re so _beautiful_ , just, just so fucking beautiful, I’ve never seen anything like-“

Asahi’s face screwed up in pleasure and a nameless emotion. He sobbed, shoved himself down on Noya’s dick violently, and then his soaked cock gushed his cum over Noya’s hand, shot it on his chest while Noya watched him cry. He trembled and hiccuped through his orgasm, cock twitching and jerking as he looked through the veil of his tears at Noya. He rubbed his wet cheek against Noya’s palm, and something in Noya clenched.

He smiled at Asahi, still stroking him lightly. The rocking of his hips had slowed, but not stopped, and the pressure shot pleasant sparks down Noya’s needy prick. When Asahi’s whimpering breaths sounded more like hisses, he released his softening erection.

Still shivering a little, Asahi unbent himself. He leant closer and regarded Noya’s smile with an expression that Noya didn’t really know how to read. His lips felt incredibly soft when he grazed them against Noya’s.

They kissed like that for a while, tender and deep, and Noya almost forgot that his cock was full to bursting. But then he felt Asahi’s hands on his shoulders, pressing him back until he hit the sheets behind him, and his dick had his undivided attention.

Licking into his mouth carefully, Asahi skimmed down Noya’s arms until he found his hands. He took hold of them, pushed them down next to Noya’s head. A warmth different from hot desire simmered in him when Asahi entwined both their hands. Almost simultaneously, he _snapped_ his hips, took Noya to the hilt and dragged back up again. It wrung a surprised gasp from him, made him clench his hands hard around Asahi’s. There was an answering pressure on his fingers, and then Asahi started to fuck himself up and down on Noya’s cock.

Immediately, Noya dug his heels into the mattress. He groaned into Asahi’s lips, thrust up into him when he came down, groaned again. The quiet sound of their skin slapping against each other was fucking _music_ to his ears, he ate it up like candy, just like Asahi’s choking breaths of „Noya… Noya…“ in between licks and kisses. In no time, Noya pounded into him hard, fast, while Asahi took him as far as he could, feeling the press of his fingers, the soft touches of his long hair falling against his face. It felt so good, Asahi’s strength, his lips, his breath, his touch, his tears, Noya felt fucking drunk with all of it, but he still he wanted more, he wanted everything that Asahi was willing to give him, _fuck_ , he was so fucking close.

Noya panted something that could have been Asahi’s name, he wasn’t sure, but Asahi answered it anyways, gasped „ _Noya_ “ against his mouth and lowered his upper body, pressed his beating heart right over Noya’s, its rhythm resonating in Noya’s blood, arched his back and slammed down hard. A cry ripped from Noya’s lungs as his cock jerked and spurted inside Asahi, as he shook and groaned and bit at Asahi’s lips, heels chafing against the bedding, hips almost lifting him off the bed and shoving in deep, taking as much as he could of this fucking gorgeous man on top of him, everything, anything he could.

Asahi pressed down on Noya’s cock, rolling now rather than bouncing. He smeared kisses all over Noya’s sweaty face. Head swept blissfully empty, Noya leant into the caresses. He felt warm, curiously full. His hips stuttered against Asahi’s, making them both moan and sigh. A few tears dripped onto Noya’s face, but Asahi kissed them away each time.

Slowly, Asahi released his hands, buried his fingers in Noya’s stiff hair. His nails scratched gently over Noya’s scalp, causing Noya to groan as he wrapped his arms around Asahi. Like a happy, post-orgasmic sponge Noya soaked up every sensation twinkling across his nerves. The feeling of their chests pressed together, Asahi’s heart thumping alongside his own, his breath drifting over Noya’s chin, his lips grazing over his temple.

Noya turned his head, seeking Asahi’s eyes. When they caught each other, he smiled up into Asahi’s flushed face.

Asahi returned it and Noya had no idea why, but it made him feel fucking delightful. It bubbled up in him like in a stock pot until he basically overboiled with laughter. Asahi flinched so hard that it rattled Noya under him, which almost had him in stitches. Still cackling, Noya clamped his arms around Asahi’s torso, tipped a little bit to the side to build up momentum and rolled them over. Although he was more than aware that it wouldn’t have been possible without Asahi’s willingness to go along with Noya’s bullshit, he laughed down at him in triumph.

Softening now, Noya’s dick had miraculously stayed inside of Asahi. It made Noya feel deliciously wanton as his laughter simmered down into a grin.

„That was fucking amazing!“ he proclaimed.

Asahi, trapped under him with drying tear tracks on his face, said, „Ah, oh. Okay? You think so?“

Noya’s eyes were wide with outrage as he flattened his nose against Asahi’s. „Yes! I mean weren’t you there? We just basically won the fucking sex Olympics!“

„Oh,“ Asahi said simply, then stumbled out, „Are you sure we weren’t disqualified for exceeding amounts of awkwardness-“

„What? No way!“ Noya answered, „I told you it was hot as fuck! Don’t worry, the judges agree with me.“ He wiggled his ass a little, causing his dick to shift around in the space it still occupied in Asahi’s ass. „Do you wanna go again, because I’m totally aiming for silver and bronze in all categories.“

Asahi laughed at that, because Noya was hilarious, duh. Unfortunately, he also kind of catapulted Noya’s limp penis out of himself while doing so, and Noya screamed in surprise.

They stared at each other, exploded into laughter at exactly the same time. It felt so good, everything felt so good, Asahi’s twitching muscles under him, his loud laugh ringing through Noya’s bedroom, his eyes flashing at him while his cheeks still dried.

„I, I, I’m sorry,“ Asahi stuttered, intercepted by his own giggles. Although he was still laughing, he stroked Noya’s neck gently with a sheepish look in his eyes.

Noya shook his head grinning. „No harm done, man.“ He gave a sexy grunt as he got up to sit on the bed. The condom peeled off of him like a layer of skin. He checked it briefly for any tears before tieing it and balling it up in a tissue.

Stretching, he stood up from the bed. „I’m gonna get us something to clean up with. Oh, and water!“

Asahi sat up, leant against Noya’s pillow and nodded. „Sounds good.“

Noya went into the bathroom first to wash his hands and grab some wet wipes. All the lights were turned off in the apartment, so he didn’t think twice about walking to the kitchen in his birthday suit. He fetched a couple bottles of water, saw the disinfectant gel that Kiyoko had very purposefully forgotten at their place some months ago and took that one, too.

Noya basically skipped back into his bedroom. Asahi watched a sea turtle float through a reef on the billboard as he reclined in Noya’s pillows. The light laved his body in billows of aqua and navy. With a tied up throat, Noya dumped the utensils on the mattress and crawled over to Asahi, kissed his smiling mouth thoroughly. 

Once they parted, he handed Asahi the wet wipes and the gel. „Such service,“ Asahi commented before cleaning himself up. 

„Only the best for my pretty boy,“ Noya said, taking a couple of wipes to remove Asahi’s cooling cum from his stomach. His eyes kept peering over to Asahi while he wiped himself down. It felt kind of intimate to watch him remove the mess of cum on his stomach or the leftover lube on his ass.

When he was finished, Noya snatched the used wipes from Asahi’s hand and tossed them on the newly designated trash spot next to the bed.

„Sophisticated,“ Asahi said, regarding the pile of used tissues and exactly one condom. 

„We’re going for a top-notch performance here, not a beautiful form,“ Noya quipped as he threw himself on top of Asahi. He smirked down at him and absolutely adored how Asahi fit into his bed like it was made for him.

Noya lowered his head, snaked his arms around Asahi’s buff upper body. Their lips met again, just as eager as before, but made soft and plump from their previous kisses. Asahi’s arms came around him immediately, felt strong and secure on his back. Noya pressed his tongue again into Asahi’s pliant mouth. He had never kissed anyone as much as he kissed Asahi. Maybe their lips would be sore in the morning?

His dick was definitely taking an interest in their action, rubbing half-hard against Asahi’s side. He felt Asahi bent into it, an answering pressure raising against his upper thigh. They ground against each other, entangling and disentangling their legs and arms, burying their hands in hair and skin and their teeth in flesh.

Noya broke away panting from Asahi’s neck, shoving their hard cocks together. They slipped against each other, Asahi making them so wet that tiny, slick sounds emerged from between them. Noya almost didn’t want to stop, but he also didn’t want to blow his load now when he could push it up Asahi later. He also knew exactly _how_ he wanted to do it.

Looking at Asahi’s red face, he asked, „Can I fuck you again? From behind? Oh my God!“ Noya gasped, because how could he even forget! „I haven’t seen your ass yet!“

„Uh,“ Asahi said, looking like he was considering whether Noya had a stroke, „You did, though? Before, when you, when we were, when you did…“

Under normal circumstances, Noya would have teased Asahi mercilessly for being 23 and unable to express the fact that they’d had sex. But these were not normal circumstances, these were circumstances under which he still hadn’t seen Asahi’s naked bum!

„I didn’t _really_ get to see it, though, we were face to face the whole time,“ Noya whined, „Roll around, I wanna bongo it up on it!“

Asahi laughed, turned around without hesitation. Noya sighed in rapture, because yes, this was definitely one fine piece of ass. He kneaded his hands into the round cheeks, squeezed the fat mounds so they overflowed between his fingers. It was perfectly proportionate to the rest of Asahi’s body, big, but not huge on him. It still had the definition of a man’s ass, but was just so fucking _ripe_.

Instead of testing its use as a bongo drum, Noya lowered his head and planted a noisy kiss on each cheek. He hoped that the sounds of his kisses and Asahi’s own chuckle were loud enough to cover the uncapping of the lube. Four of his fingers were slicked up and positioned over Asahi’s ass in no time.

Noya gave the left cheek one last playful bite before crawling back up and fitting himself along Asahi’s back. His hips veered off a little to the side, squeezing his cock more along Asahi’s lower back.

He pressed as close as he could, wanting to witness all of Asahi’s reactions. Just as Asahi turned his head further, smiled up at him and kissed Noya’s lower lip over his shoulder, he pushed all four of his lubed up fingers into his hole.

Noya could feel Asahi shudder under him, his mouth open to gasp a quiet „oh“ against Noya’s lips. He rocked his hips back instantly, spread his legs. Asahi felt much looser than he did at the beginning of the night. Noya felt all smug about it.

As he pushed his digits slowly but further in, he asked in a whisper, „Okay?“

Asahi nodded his head, his open lips skimming over Noya’s chin. He rubbed his slightly prickly cheek against Noya’s. The catlike behavior made him smile and then all of his functions froze immediately.

„I have to tell you something,“ he announced in a flat tone.

His body didn’t seize up, but Asahi’s face spelled out dread in all its variations. With affected nonchalance, he asked, „What?“

Noya took a deep breath. The realization felt _terrible_. How could he have just forgotten to tell Asahi about this before utterly ravishing him?

He looked into Asahi’s grave face and just ripped it off like a bandaid, „I’m the reason you were forced to stop feeding those alley cats.“ There was a pause in which Noya regarded Asahi’s empty expression. „I saw you behind the coffee bar and made you bang your head against the door, right? I wanted to properly apologize for that, but you were avoiding me like the plague so I wrote you a letter and gave it to the Assistant Manager who read it before passing it to you, so he read that you were feeding those cats, and then he told you off and made you throw away the fish, and I’m sorry.“

Noya half-expected Asahi to slap him in the face in shocked betrayal, but he just considered him. After a few seconds, he shrugged his shoulders. „That’s okay.“

„I, are you sure? I mean you seemed really upset, like you really liked feeding those cats or something.“

„Yeah, I was,“ Asahi agreed, „But Suga told me off for it a few times before, I knew what I was getting myself into. And I understand Suga’s concerns. I always disinfected myself several times before and after feeding them, but it’s not terribly smart to feed stray cats when it’s your job to handle food.“ He blinked. „How do you know that I was upset about it, though?“

Okay, just another bandaid, just rsshhht and quick. „I watched from outside to see whether the Assistant Manager would give you the letter.“

Asahi shifted a little on the bed, Noya could feel the movements around his fingers. He gasped in horror and continued, „Holy shit, that was creepy, right? My friends told me I’m a creep and I didn’t _listen_ -“

„No, it’s, it’s fine,“ Asahi intercepted and even smiled crookedly at him, God bless, „I would have probably done the same in your situation. I mean, I would have wanted to see how you’d react. I’m not mad.“ The crooked smile curled into something soft and playful. „But it’s nice to know that you care whether I think you’re a creep or not.“

„Okay, good, because I also have to tell you about your work’s Instagram account-“

„Yes, I’m all ears, but maybe after the, after we, we did the, the…“

Noya leaned closer to Asahi’s reddening face and smirked. „The what? After we did the dishes?“

Asahi snorted, his breath whiffing over Noya’s cheek. „No, after we, we-“

„Saved the world from Sailor Galaxia?“ Noya continued, reaching for one of the many condoms strewn across the sheets.

„No! After-“

„We crochet sweater vests for penguins?“

With outraged laughter, Asahi threw Noya off of him, sending him tumbling sideways into the pillows. „Seriously? _Sweater vests_?“ he repeated and climbed on Noya’s lap. Under the frosted pink light, his body shone like a sculpture carved out of marble. Noya planned to worship this work of art exactly how it deserved to be.

Asahi’s ass was seated right on Noya’s dick, so Noya wiggled his hips suggestively. Asahi’s response was to snatch the condom out of Noya’s fingers while shooting him an amused look.

„You really _are_ insufferable,“ he said, bit into the wrapping and tore it open with his teeth.

Noya watched his inviting smile with growing excitement. He had a feeling he’d have to buckle up for this next round.

It was sometime early in the morning when Noya choked on Asahi’s hair. Apparently having relocated from Asahi’s shoulder to Noya’s open mouth, it was now attempting to crawl down his throat.

Noya coughed, wheezed, fought off the cat he had dreamed was sitting on his face. Several moments passed with him lying petrified in bed, trying to understand what the fuck was going on.

A mumble from his right had Noya look over. Ah yes, there was the culprit, a beautiful man with gorgeous but deadly hair and an urge to cuddle. By all appearance, he had tried to respect Noya’s wish to keep their distance. It was annoyingly difficult for him to fall asleep with another person attached to him. He remembered how Asahi had nodded his understanding, busy chasing a droplet of his third Gari Gari Kun down his finger. And he _had_ kept his distance. But only until he had fallen asleep, because he was now crowding Noya against the edge of the bed, an arm and a leg thrown over him with his head nestled against Noya’s shoulder.

Noya stared into the chasm yawning at him from the edge of the bed. Meh, he could deal with this. He wriggled closer to Asahi, carefully removed all hair from the vicinity of his mouth before leaning into him and fitting Asahi’s head along his throat. 

This was apparently the moment his bed companion had been waiting for. He burrowed closer until most of his not insubstantial body was resting on Noya. His breath ghosted over Noya’s chest as he settled his head on it and sighed happily.

Noya stared at the deep sea blue ceiling. Something warm and wet was pooling just under his nipple, and it didn’t take a genius to deduce that Asahi was drooling all over his chest.

Slowly, Noya raised his hand. He let it glide over the sheet, traced the fine hairs on Asahi’s lower arm, up over his bicep and shoulder towards his head. Very lightly, he grazed it over the tip of Asahi’s nose up towards his forehead, sank his fingers into his treacherous hair. For the umpteenth time, Noya marveled at its softness, its thickness. He recalled how it had looked pouring through his fingers. He recalled Asahi’s face, on the verge of orgasm, mouth open but jaw tense to hold in the sobs, wanting to hide but still looking at Noya with tears spilling from his eyes. And there had been something else, something new and uncharted flashing at Noya.

Noya’s breath hitched, but he didn’t know why. It jarred Asahi on his chest. He murmured something, rubbed his cheek against Noya and promptly resumed his drooling. Noya smirked into the darkness. It should have been gross, and it was kinda, but it was also bafflingly cute.

Noya closed his eyes, already forgetting what he’d been thinking about. He fell asleep imagining all the different ways he would get to tease Asahi in the morning.


	7. Epilogue

Noya looked himself over critically. His slacks were pressed, his shirt crisp, his belt… Well, it held up his pants, so it did the job even with the cheap leatherette flaking at every end. For a date at home, it was totally a-okay.

But also maybe not so much if you were considering the fact that it was Noya’s birthday and probably one of the last times they could see each other on a Saturday before the Intercollegiate Volleyball Championship. But it was _still_ just a date. Which wasn’t to say that dates with Asahi weren’t fucking awesome, it was just. Noya didn’t really need to stress about it. They were comfortable with each other. 

Noya took a deep breath, held it for three seconds, let it out. It actually helped a little against his nervousness, like Asahi had said it would.

He carded one hand through his immaculately styled hair. He looked good, he felt good, he was _excited_. There was no reason to be nervous. Noya smiled at his reflection and walked back into the kitchen.

The bread was still where he’d left it on the counter. He put the slices into a bowl, set it on the coffee table in their living room corner where he had put the small plate with the oil. Forever trying to convince Noya that red wine was actually drinkable, Noya was 100% certain that Asahi would gift him a bottle. So he had prepared the starter accordingly, very Italian and niminy-piminy and shit. Literally just bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Their main course was frozen pizza, after all, so it totally fit. If Asahi was gonna get used to a certain standard, it was gonna be the lowest of them all.

Noya regarded his meager preparation for a nice meal at home, the water stains on the mismatching wine glasses. _Shit, am I not trying hard enough?_ he thought just as the fucking doorbell rang.

Whelp, now it was too late. Noya raced to the front door and yanked it open. Asahi looked fashionably understated in his slim coat and wide-rimmed glasses, so of course Noya had to throw himself at him. „You’re here!“ he shouted against Asahi’s neck. His arms caught Noya like they always did and God, did he smell _divine_.

„I’m here,“ Asahi murmured into his hair, kissed his forehead. It had sent a quiet thrill through Noya the first time he’d done it, and it hadn’t stopped doing that since. He patted along the rucksack slung over Asahi’s back and gave him a sly look. „And you brought presents,“ he assessed.

Asahi stepped into the genkan and unbuttoned his coat. „Such cunning.“

Noya raised a hand to his chest as if it was hurting. „Is that how you treat a birthday boy on his _birthday_?“

Asahi laughed, walked right into Noya’s arms after divesting himself off his outdoor wear. „You are right, how could I dare to mistreat a birthday boy like this? Clearly, my insolence must be punished.“ His tone was light, but his eyes were deep. Noya leaned up for a kiss and recalled the first and so far only time he’d spanked Asahi. They had been tipsy and Asahi had gotten bold, talking polite shit about Noya’s burned off eyebrow (tragically lost at Ryuu’s bachelor party). So naturally he’d smacked Asahi’s ass like he’d deserved. He remembered the slapping sound, Asahi’s yelp and giggle. And he remembered Asahi’s moans blocked by his bitten lip when he’d done it again, his knees shifting, eyes wide and waiting.

They hadn’t gone further than a few slaps back then, but Noya had sensed the potential. The possibility to uncover something between them, something new. _But_ today wasn’t that day. There were other firsts to be had.

Noya disengaged from the kiss before they ended up in his bedroom instead of the living room. He dragged Asahi to the couch by his sleeve and skipped into the kitchen. Glancing at the wine glasses, Asahi asked, „Oh, you bought wine?“

„No,“ Noya replied as he emerged with a corkscrew from the kitchenette, „But you did.“

Asahi’s grin was parts exasperation, parts fondness. He sat down the backpack and unearthed a bottle of red wine from its depths. Noya accepted it gratefully. „It’s from Sardinia,“ Asahi explained while Noya fiddled with the corkscrew, „A regional grape called… cannonau. Takagi-Sensei recommended it, although she commented on our offensive taste for having wine with pizza. Not very European, apparently.“

„Well, just because she did a six months internship in Milan doesn’t make her an expert on Italian cuisine so Takagi-Sensei can stuff it.“ The cork plopped from the bottle like an exclamation point. Asahi didn’t say anything to that, because he was respectful towards his teachers unlike Noya. He did smile a little, though.

The wine gurgled from the bottle into their glasses. Even though Noya was not a big wine fan, he liked his glass to be full to the brim. All of Asahi’s attempts to deter him from his practice had failed so far. Also come on, what did wine have to breathe for? That was just bullshit fancy people made up, and all of the wine blogs in the world couldn’t shake Noya’s belief on that.

Once he had filled Asahi’s glass with the same amount of wine, Noya handed him his glass and they clinked them together. It actually smelled good, so Noya dared to drink a mouthful instead of a sip. Well alright, it tasted okay, too, but they all tasted the same anyway.

„You like this one more,“ Asahi stated with a scrutinizing look. 

„Eh,“ Noya responded, shrugging his shoulders. He had trash talked red wine too much in front of Asahi to back down now and say this one was actually okay. But the knowing look on Asahi’s face said he saw right through Noya.

To distract them both, he began to stuff his mouth with bread dunked in olive oil. „How is the application process going?“

„Good,“ Asahi replied, stuffing his face, too, albeit a lot more elegantly. In between bites of bread, he told Noya about the pieces he had to sew for a potential semester abroad in London. Something twinged a little bit in Noya’s chest when he thought about Asahi being away from him for _months_. Almost four whole moon cycles! But it was also obvious from Asahi’s twitching fingers as he described the evening gown with a daring cul de paris that he couldn’t wait to get to sewing and cutting and creating. That made it easier. Like hell Noya was gonna be bitter about Asahi’s passion and future.

Just as Asahi was mulling over his decision on making the men suit out of linen with the occasional ignorant question from Noya, the oven timer chimed. Noya sprinted towards the kitchenette. With Ryuu’s handmade oven mittens, he carefully extracted their first part of the main course, frozen but now heated pizza margherita.

Noya cut the pizza into pieces, tossed in their second pizza. The tiny microwave oven struggled to bake two pizzas at once, which Ryuu and him had found out in several, increasingly desperate attempts. 

With a flourish, Noya set down the pizza on the coffee table. „Thanks for the meal,“ he said.

„Thanks for the meal,“ Asahi replied and grabbed a slice. Hungry as he was, Noya bit into his piece savagely and washed it down with the wine. He quietly acknowledged that his glass was already more than half empty and hoped that Asahi wouldn’t notice.

„How is your class with Yuasa-Sensei going?“ Asahi asked carefully.

Noya sighed around a mouthful of pizza. „Okay? I guess?“ he responded, „Sometimes she asks me to respond to a question like she expects me to know the answer, and I’m like errh. Her face is all suspicious, like she thinks my head’s going to pop open and reveal a tiny dog operating me like a robot. I don’t know, I just wish she would stop teaching all the mandatory classes.“

Asahi chewed thoughtfully. „Well, she did say in her review that your paper showed signs of genius and idiocy. Maybe she’s still trying to make up her mind which one it is.“

„While the truth was that it wasn’t my fault that the paper turned out like that, because I was temporarily fucked stupid by my boyfriend’s huge cock.“ Noya gave him a sharp look as Asahi choked a little on his wine. „But you wouldn’t let me explain it to her.“

„Of course I wouldn’t let you tell her that, because she probably would’ve kicked you out of the program, and also it’s not true!“

„Clue number one,“ Noya began, raising his pointer finger, „I came to your place so you could help me finish the paper, which you did, and it was actually going well. But then I rode your gargantuan dick all night and when I did the finishing touches, I realized your cock somehow fried my brain and I could only produce garbled bullshit and then I handed in the paper because there was no time left. Case closed.“

Noya’s grin threatened to turn into laughter. Asahi tried to hide his red face behind a tiny slice of pizza and murmured, „My penis is not gargantuan.“

„It feels like it is,“ Noya said and couldn’t help snickering.

He felt his insides flush a little at the memory, his first time at Asahi’s place. His tiny apartment close to campus, the unusual loft bed and the instant desire to bounce on Asahi while bracing himself against the ceiling. Asahi had prepped him for so long that Noya literally had to take matters into his own hands. He’d snatched the condom from Asahi, rolled it over his dick and promptly sat on it. Asahi had cried almost immediately, held on to Noya’s hips and pounded into him as tears fell down his cheeks. Noya had never felt satisfaction like he had as he’d taken Asahi’s prick like that, shoving himself down on it as hard as he could with his hands against the ceiling, controlling every second of their fucking, panting to Asahi exactly how good his fat cock felt in him as he watched him sob.

Noya was almost fully erect by the time he reached for his wine again. That had definitely been a nice first introduction to Asahi’s dick in his ass.

The timer chimed again. Noya got up to fetch their second pizza, but not before pecking Asahi on his hot cheek.

Asahi’s voice sounded a bit thready from the living room corner. „I can’t imagine what you did to that paper. I thought it was good, although I guess I’m not really the best judge for that.“

Noya shrugged as he put the second pizza on the table. „I don’t even really remember what I wrote. I guess your dick drilled a hole in my brain or something.“

„Can you stop _talking_ about that?“ Asahi asked, grinning and licking a piece of spinach from his lips.

„What do you want me to say, it’s the only thing I can remember. Your enormous erection up my ass wiped my memory.“

He grinned at Asahi’s blushing face, the way he tried not to laugh at Noya’s stupid jokes, fully aware that no, it wasn’t the only thing he could remember. Almost as frequently, Noya thought about lying in bed with Asahi afterwards, sweaty and playing with Asahi’s hair, watching it slide through his fingers like rough silk. He’d _finally_ asked Asahi what he liked about Extinguish My Eyes. Although the question had remained in his mind, it had usually been replaced by the craving to hug or kiss or suck Asahi as soon as he laid eyes on him. Somehow, it had slid back into his brain just then, so he’d asked, tracing Asahi’s cheekbone with his knuckles. Asahi’s answer had been surprisingly short.

„The idea of a love so strong that it outlasts your own existence takes my breath away.“

Noya had looked into Asahi’s starry eyes and stayed quiet. What did it mean then that Asahi had just taken his hand all those weeks ago and recited that poem, _exactly_ the poem that invoked ideas of undying love in him when he hadn’t even known Noya’s name? It must have been a combination of his thoughts and the way Asahi’s gay-ass fairy lights had made his eyes sparkle and illuminated the smile on his lips, because oh. 

So next to sitting on Asahi’s cock for the first time, Noya also very clearly remembered looking at Asahi and thinking _oh. He loves me._

Noya had sat on this knowledge and done nothing. He’d watched Asahi smile and laugh and marvel at almost everything that Noya did, every glance and gesture infused with his love and done nothing. He’d not asked himself, hadn’t listened for any inner voice. If it was there, it would probably come to him, he had reasoned.

And it did, on Children’s Day, of all things. They’d sat crammed together with Ryuu and Kiyoko in this very living room corner celebrating the end of Golden Week with shabu shabu. Ryuu had whipped out his mother’s special sesame sauce recipe and they’d all cut the ingredients together. The preparation had taken hours, due to heated arguments about the correct way to cut vegetables, as did eating the hot pot. At the end, Kiyoko had cleared out the bubbling pot, distributing the leftover ingredients into their bowls. With a mixture of sadness and outrage, Noya had noticed that Asahi had ended up with all the shungiku. And like, it was no big deal, Asahi loved that shit just as much, Noya wasn’t seven anymore and could deal with this without throwing himself into a temper tantrum. But it turned out he didn’t have to. Without looking at him, Asahi just transferred all of the shungiku he had to Noya’s bowl while nodding along to Ryuu’s customer complaints.

It was just this tiny, stupid moment. This hadn’t even been the first time Asahi had shared his food with Noya, but for some reason this minuscule act of kindness had Noya’s insides throbbing with warmth. He’d just stared up at Asahi, thinking _oh fuck, oh shit, okay, alright, I love this guy, gnnnnh_

So Noya knew now. He had actually known for like five months. The times when he had felt the words bubble up in him, practically bursting out of his mouth, were countless, but he’d held himself back every time. Because it wasn’t really something that you told somebody while riding the bus or vacuuming the bathroom or scoring a point. This shit had to be done right. What he felt was meaningful, and so it should be meaningful when he told Asahi. 

The only thing Noya had to do was figure out how to tell him. And that journey had been a clusterfuck.

After making it halfway through his second romantic comedy, Noya had decided that this bullshit research wasn’t getting him anywhere. He’d read blogs, watched YouTube videos, read more dumb love poetry. The problem was that all of that wasn’t what love was like for Noya. It felt kind of warm and oh and mmmmm and a little soft. It was seeing Asahi smile dazedly at him as soon as he woke up. But telling Asahi that he loved him right after he woke up felt a little bit like clubbing him over the head with a baseball bat, so that was out.

Only one time so far he’d gotten really close. They had driven to Mt. Yufu for shits and giggles in the middle of summer and actually ended up staying at a small onsen. Most people had kept clear of the hot springs, opting to stay inside where the onsen provided an AC and ice cream. They had been the only ones stupid enough to brave the hot water. At ten pm, the sun had already set as Noya had slid into the spring. Asahi had already been in, submerged just under his shoulders. He’d turned to Noya smiling, and Noya had immediately zeroed in on the lavender bunny ribbon he’d laughingly bought Asahi just hours earlier and for exactly this purpose, to hold up his hair in the tub. His thoughts had chased each other in a circle, just strings of _I love you, this is it, I’m gonna tell you, right in your face, fucking fuck I love you._

He’d floated close to Asahi, embraced him. Always, Asahi’s reaction to such close proximity was to kiss Noya. So they did, and it was okay, Noya would kiss him and then tell him, no problem. Five minutes later he still hadn’t told Asahi, but was leaning against a rock with Asahi whimpering into his neck while he jerked them off furiously in the hot water, all quiet and rough, trembling with the filthy promises Noya gasped into his ear.

„Noya?“ Asahi’s voice was like the sudden appearance of a manhole in Noya’s trip down memory lane.

„Yeah?“ he said, trying to find his bearings. There were still two pieces of pizza left, which Noya assumed were for him, so he reached for one.

When he looked up, Asahi was smiling at him. „Can I give you my present?“

„Fuck yeah!“ he replied before rolling up the remainder of the pizza slice and stuffing it into his mouth. He managed to swallow down the second piece just as Asahi set the present down in front of him and was pretty proud of himself.

The gift was so bulgy and weirdly shaped that it was probably something squashy. For comedic reasons, Noya still picked it up and shook it close to his ear. He met Asahi’s exasperated eyer-roll with a shit-eating grin and tore the wrapping in one fell tear. 

It had been squashy, because it was a sweater. Noya had seen enough of Ryuu’s creations to know that this one was hand knitted. An _entire_ sweater, hand knitted. Carefully, he stroked a hand over the material. It felt incredibly soft under his fingertips.

„I used merino wool,“ Asahi confided, „They use it a lot in clothes for hiking. It’s supposed to cool you when it’s hot and keep you warm when it’s cold. And since it’s made out of wool, you don’t have to wash it very often.“

Noya unfolded the sweater, letting it stretch out in all its glory in front of him. It had a clean, square-looking pattern. The upper two thirds of the sweater were died a cinnamon brown that faded out into a dark grey in the bottom third. It looked cozy, quietly stylish.

A little hesitantly, Asahi said, „I actually wanted to knit a volleyball into the chest, but that was even beyond Ryuu’s expertise.“ There was a pause and oh my God, Asahi was going to apologize for failing to knit a fucking volleyball into th- „I hope you like this version, too.“

It took Noya something like three seconds to pull the sweater over his shirt and throw himself into Asahi’s arms. „You adorable moron! I love it, why are you so cute, you made this yourself! It’s amazing, I’ll never take it off, and you can’t even knit! How!“

Asahi’s laugh rumbled through his chest and Noya buried his burning face into his neck as deep as he could. God, why was Asahi so _nice_ to him? Noya’s heart was full to bursting and this was, maybe this was it, maybe this was the moment- „Well, I’ve always wanted to learn and Ryuu helped me a lot. And the waffle stitch pattern isn’t that complicated, oh, careful.“ He tamed Noya’s wildly flinging leg by helping him sling it around Asahi’s middle in an attempt to get even closer. There was a rustle, and then: „You don’t want to destroy your second present.“

Slowly, Noya raised his head to look at Asahi. „Now you’re just trying to raise the stakes for me on your own birthday, you cruel, sexy man.“

Asahi smirked at him as he reached for his backpack again. „I will accept watches and equity.“

Although it made it exceedingly difficult for Asahi to reveal the present, Noya stayed right where he was with his arms wrapped tight around his man. Finally, Asahi put down a small cake container and popped the lid. On the plastic bottom was a bear donut, no, _the_ bear donut, with the tiny ears and winky face and everything. It was as big as a dessert plate and looked… moist?

Noya’s face must have looked like the depiction of the sound you got when you dialed a fax machine, because Asahi clarified, „It’s the donut, but inside out!“ When Noya turned his eyes to him, he saw an almost childlike excitement reflected back at him. „The dough is the filling, and the cream is covering it. Kageyama even helped me with the cream, we had to adapt the recipe a little to make it more moldable. Because you said you like the filling best. So you have more of it now.“

Noya’s wits snapped back into place. „Oh! This is like a prelude to the third present!“

Asahi froze a little, mumbled, „The third…“

„Yeah! Because later, I’m gonna eat your-“ Asahi shot out of his seat while Noya broke out in laughter. He scrambled to his feet, but Asahi was so fast! He was almost at the genkan when Noya jumped on his back gasping „wait, wait, wait-“ in between his cackling. Lacking in the height department, Noya had quickly learnt in schoolyard brawls to exploit any weakness he could. And he knew a lot of Asahi’s weaknesses.

„I have to leave and never come back,“ Asahi threatened as he was being wrestled and tickled to the ground.

„No, no,“ Noya snickered, „You can’t, you can’t, it’s my birthday, you have to stay, it’s the law.“

„What, what kind, what kind of fucking law-“ Asahi could hardly press out any words between his desperate giggles.

Noya was about to say something super witty like the Noyaland law, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was an inhuman shriek when Asahi scratched this spot on his neck that felt so _gross_.

Just when the full on body cringe caused his arms to retreat like short t-rex arms, Asahi chucked him on the ground. He pinned Noya’s wrist to the floor while simultaneously tugging on his hair. Noya squealed like a pig under Asahi, hair pulling felt _ewww_. 

„I can’t believe the stuff that comes out of your mouth sometimes, you insufferable, ridiculous, tiny-“  


_What the_ \- „Tiny?!“

Noya’s fingers almost jammed into Asahi’s side. On top of him, Asahi flinched and Noya exploited that momentary feebleness completely. He pushed Asahi off of him, hand keeping his unrelenting tickling going to assert his dominance. „Excuse me?“ he panted, „Who did you just call tiny?“

Only a high-pitched keening sound could be heard from Asahi in response. Noya climbed hastily on top of his hulk of a man, fingers dancing over his sides. „I hope it wasn’t me, because my height is perfectly average and I have enough big dick energy for the both of us.“ Never mind that he was wiggling on Asahi’s huge cock the very moment the words left his lips.

„Okay, okay, just, stop! God, stop please, fuck!“

„Only if you promise that you’re not gonna run away!“

„Yes, yes! Please!“

Noya huffed triumphantly and gentled his tickles into caresses. Grinning, he leant down to plant kisses on Asahi’s panting mouth. „I guess you learnt to never underestimate my hidden Napoleon compl-“

Asahi shoved Noya off of him. It only took like a flick of his wrist, it was so fucking offensive. Noya grunted, toppled to the side. Asahi was back on his feet in a flash and ran back into the living room. „Oh, don’t worry,“ he taunted, „You kind of showed your hand when you yapped like a chihuahua at Kuroo.“

It took Noya a second, because what the fuck? Then he laughed, got up on his feet just enough so he could skid after Asahi. „I’m gonna make you fucking regret saying that,“ he promised. Asahi just giggled in this high-pitched way he did when he was excited. It was totally at odds with his appearance, which made it all the more endearing. Noya moved to round the table and come after his asshole of a boyfriend, but Asahi just jumped on the sofa, keeping the couch table between them.

Noya crouched slightly, ready to strike at any moment. He slid to the right. Asahi mirrored his steps on the couch, if a little wobbly. So he changed directions, only for Asahi to do the same.

„Seriously?“ Noya huffed. 

Asahi only grinned, bit his bottom lip. „I guess you have to do better than that.“

And bless his playful streak, because that gave Noya the right idea. His lips stretched into a smirk. He needed to be fast for this, so Noya tensed his legs, lowered his weight to get into the starting position. His socked feet slipped noiselessly over the floor as he climbed the table and launched himself straight at Asahi.

He registered Asahi’s open mouth and hastily raised arms before crashing into him. „Shit!“ Asahi yelled as Noya cackled. Asahi’s back hit the window and fuck, that sounded a little bit like it hurt. Pure instinct made Noya clamp his arms around Asahi’s head to prevent any further damage. The shutters clattered as Asahi fell like a tree, a couple of them sounding like they got bent beyond repair. 

They hit the sofa with an ‚oof‘. Not missing a beat, Noya rolled on top of Asahi, moving his arms to wrap them around his chest. „You, you are insane,“ Asahi gasped. His hands slipped to Noya’s chest, exerted a bit of pressure as if to push Noya off of him. Noya smiled into Asahi’s hair, trailed his nose along his neck. „I am a little,“ he admitted before sinking his teeth into Asahi’s skin.

Noya let the patch of skin slide between his teeth, gnawed and sucked at it gently. Asahi gasped and the tension flowed out of him, like uncorking a bottle of champagne. Noya absolutely adored this about him. How his body became pliant with a perfect flick of the tongue, melted against his own with spread thighs and an arched back. That in just half a year, he had learnt to unwind himself so quickly with Noya’s teasing.

So Noya did what any good boyfriend would do: reward Asahi by groping him everywhere. And Asahi liked to be groped _hard_. He groaned into the sofa cushion as Noya flicked his nipples through his shirt, as he rubbed over his plush ass, dragged his nails along Asahi’s inner thigh and squeezed his cock through his pants that the zipper almost popped. He fit his mouth over Asahi’s when he heard him moan, wanting to feel his sounds in his mouth, against his tongue.

„You like that?“ Noya whispered to him in between wet kisses, „You like how I touch you?“

„Yes,“ Asai replied softly, his lips plump against Noya’s, „I, I like it.“

Noya hummed. He slid his hand from Asahi’s butt cheeks to his perineum, pressing his fingers along it, just shy of touching his hole through his clothes. Instantly, Asahi raised his leg, resting it against the back cushion, spreading his legs further. Noya swallowed hard. Always so fucking eager to open himself up for him, fuck.

Noya brushed his finger against Asahi’s opening and asked, „Makes you feel good? The way I touch you?“

Asahi caught his eyes. They were so honest that it made Noya’s chest hurt. His mind flashed to their first night together, to Asahi’s face full of tears and a love he couldn’t suppress as he shook apart on Noya’s cock. He needed to tell him. He needed to tell Asahi what he made him feel, too.

„Always,“ Asahi moaned, „You always make me feel so good, I, I love how you make me feel.“

Noya took a shuddering breath. „I love how you make me feel, too,“ he said. Not there yet, but close enough for now.

He kissed Asahi, swiped his tongue over his lips. After they parted, he smiled down at him. „You ready for me to eat you out?“

Asahi blushed, but returned the smile and nodded.

As he sat up and pulled his shirt over his head, Noya worked the zipper over his erection. He took Asahi’s pants and underwear off in one go, smirked at the wet spot on his shorts. With a flourish, he divested Asahi of both socks. Not a stitch was left on him as he sat across from Noya, stark naked and beautiful. 

They were both smiling when Noya took Asahi’s face into his hands and kissed him, pressed him down into the cushions. Asahi slung his arms around him. He rubbed his body against Noya’s almost delicately, skin catching on clothes. Noya knew that it made Asahi hot. His nakedness compared to Noya’s dressed state, the suggestion of being at a disadvantage, of being at Noya’s mercy. Lucky for him, Noya loved to exploit that disadvantage until it brought him to the brink of tears.

Lapping at Asahi’s tongue with his own, Noya raised his hips and fingered his flies open. Once down, he pulled his underwear out of the way. He moaned when his bare dick pressed against Asahi’s, when it dragged through the wet mess on Asahi’s stomach. Noya lowered his hips again, squeezing their hard cocks together. Sighing, Asahi rolled his hips, meeting Noya’s slow thrusts, sliding them together trapped between their stomachs.

It was something like a routine for them on Monday mornings, when they were not ready to say goodbye to each other and lacking the time to do anything more advanced. It would get so incredibly wet between them, pricks slick with mostly Asahi’s precum, the sounds of their movement making Asahi blush and moan.

Noya rutted against him harder, angled Asahi’s head to the side and pushed his tongue deep into his mouth. Asahi shuddered at the invasion, his fingers buried in Noya’s hair. 

God, he could make them both cum like this, make Asahi spread his legs and bite his lip as he fucked him harder and faster until their dicks pulsed and spilled against each other.

But they had plans, plans that Noya had asked for himself and that he wanted to see through, god-fucking-dammit.

So he gave Asahi’s swollen lips one more kiss and sat up. Fucking hell, Asahi already looked wrecked. His chest heaving and his hair a mess, face flushed and mouth open, prick stiff and weeping. The image alone made Noya’s dick and heart throb. How had it taken him _months_ to figure out that he was in love with this man when he had the same reaction to seeing him so vulnerable every fucking time?

Resting on his hunches, he put his hands on the backs of Asahi’s knees. „Raise those thick thighs of yours,“ he instructed with a wink. 

Asahi snorted, but obeyed. He put his legs up over his head until most of his weight was resting on his upper back. Swiftly, Noya stuffed a few pillows under Asahi’s back, shuffled closer on his knees. After positioning the last one of the pillows on his knees, he grasped Asahi’s thighs and said, „Okay, roll back.“

And Asahi did. The small of his back came to rest against Noya’s stomach, his ass on Noya’s chest and fucking God, Noya wanted to weep as he looked down from Asahi’s twitching anus to his heavy dick, from his spread ass cheeks to his long legs, as he trailed his eyes from his folded stomach down to his chest to his arms thrown above his head. An impossibly dark blush had taken over his face. His lips trembled like he wanted to say something, but then just released a tiny sigh. Noya watched a dribble of precum fall from Asahi’s slit to his sternum and grinned.

Noya’s hands reached for him instantly, skimming against the muscles of his thighs down to card through Asahi’s chest hair as far as they could reach. His blood pounded in his ears and in his prick. „That’s quite a view,“ he said, his own voice low and rough.

Asahi licked his lips. „It, it’s pretty good from here, too.“

Noya’s grin didn’t disappear as he mouthed over Asahi’s spread cheek. „I, I,“ Asahi started to stammer, swallowed, continued, „I showered. Before. And I. I douched.“ A pause. „I just thought I would let you know.“

„Oh nice,“ Noya commented, „How was it?“ Noya had never tried it. Honestly, he figured that everyone knew what they were getting into with anal sex. The possibility of being exposed to any remnants didn’t bother him, especially since they used condoms so, meh. 

Asahi shrugged his shoulders, cleared his throat. „Not necessarily the greatest experience, but I didn’t mind it.“

„Hm,“ Noya said. He circled Asahi’s hole with his index finger. It was tense, but quivered a little under his finger pad. He looked down at him, smiled. „I kind of like to imagine you cleaning yourself. Getting yourself ready for me.“ 

Asahi licked his lips again just as Noya licked the tips of two of his fingers. „I kind of liked to think about that, too.“

Still smiling, Noya rubbed his wetted fingers over Asahi’s entrance. The muscle gave a little under his touch. Asahi’s eyes were locked on Noya’s fingers, his chest raising and falling with the rhythm of his heavy breathing. It was easy to see how much Asahi loved to be touched like this, how good the intimacy of the act made him feel. But Noya wanted him to tremble with it from head to toe, make him blush and stutter and moan, make him cry from the sheer embarrassment of feeling so good from Noya’s tongue fucking him.

Asahi stopped breathing when Noya spread his hole slightly with his fingers and licked a long stripe right over it. 

A bitten off moan squeezed from his throat. His thighs spasmed so hard Noya felt the contraction under his fingers. Noya let out a heavy breath, licked Asahi’s hole again. It twitched right against the tip of his tongue. The skin was thin, fragile even. It tasted like any other part of Asahi, but a little darker, more concentrated. Noya laid his mouth softly over his anus, kissed it, laved it with his tongue.

Asahi groaned and Noya’s dick spit down onto the cushions. God, this really did feel so fucking intimate.

Looking down the length of Asahi’s dripping dick, Noya caught Asahi’s gaze. His eyes were riveted on Noya’s mouth on his ass, cheeks glowing ruddy with the flush of his arousal. He was so gorgeous that Noya’s heart fucking _ached_.

Asahi took a deep breath. „Is, is it how you imagined it?“ he mumbled, „In… your fantasy?“

His fantasy… Noya remembered Asahi standing in front of him in the changing room, felt the tint of his embarrassment caused by his lack of restraint, the arousal licking at his insides. And holy shit, it was almost _exactly_ like it.

Noya gave Asahi’s hole a smacking kiss. „Yeah, actually, it’s pretty exactly like in my fantasy,“ Noya replied, some of that amazement shining through his voice.

„And you like it?“

Noya grinned against Asahi’s entrance. As a response, he shifted his hips forward, pressing his bare, dripping hard-on to Asahi’s back. 

Asahi’s smile was gentle, his voice soft. „I’m glad you like it.“ One of these days, Asahi’s adorableness would just fucking kill him on the spot.

Noya traced along Asahi’s softening rim. He raised his head a little bit, letting Asahi see where exactly his tongue was touching him. Asahi squirmed against his knees. His bottom lip was trapped between his teeth, his dick jerked down on his drenched stomach and Noya sighed.

„You are so gorgeous, so fucking gorgeous like this,“ he slurred in between licks of his tongue, „Always taking everything I give you, taking it so well and wanting more.“ Asahi moaned, nodded his head the tiniest amount. His hair sparked wherever it caught the evening light shining through the blinds. Noya didn’t need to ask, but he wanted to hear Asahi say it. „You like it?“

His face turned a little bit further into his bicep, still trying to hide a little. „Yes, your, your face down there, it looks good, and it feels, feels so-“ His words melted into a needy whine when Noya sucked on his hole, poked the tip of his tongue into it. His voice sounded higher, more feverish as he continued, „It, it feels so warm and soft and, and close, I, it-“

„Intimate,“ Noya rasped, because Asahi couldn’t, because he feared he would reveal too much of himself by using that word like his feelings weren’t plastered all over his handsome face.

„Yes,“ Asahi sighed, eyes hooded and pleading and brimming with love, „Yes.“

Noya sucked harder on his entrance, pressed his lips against it, making it so wet and pliant. The tip of his tongue slid into it easily, so he breached Asahi a little more. There was a shiver, a gasp, but Noya didn’t give him any time, he retreated and stuck his tongue in again, deeper than before, sucking on Asahi’s rim the whole time.

Noya moaned with it, right into Asahi. He was doing it, he was fucking Asahi’s ass with his tongue, thrusting it in and out of him while Asahi squeezed around him as if it was Noya’s cock. 

„Yuu.“

Noya’s eyes snapped to Asahi’s face. His eyes were closed, mouth open and panting, hands clawed into the pillow under his head. But he, he’d just, he’d _just_ called-

Noya sank his tongue in hard, licking Asahi as deep as he could. Instantly, a small _ah_ emerged from Asahi’s mouth and then just as quietly: „Yuu.“

Fuck. _Fuck_.

Noya exhaled sharply through his nose. Just, he just needed to breathe regularly, that would probably keep his jackhammering heart from bursting out of his chest, totally.

He retracted his tongue, couldn’t tear his eyes away from Asahi’s flushed face if he wanted to as he entered him again. Moaning, oh God, moaning so softly that he was basically _mewling_ , Asahi rolled his hips to the extent possible, meeting Noya’s tongue filling him up with every thrust. 

Noya exerted so much pressure that he felt the skin graze against his teeth. It made Asahi squirm on his lap, hips bucking up into Noya’s face. „Yuu, I, I-“ he started to say, but yelped when Noya sucked so fiercely on him that his entire hole disappeared into his mouth.

Lube! He needed lube, lube and a condom, Noya had squirreled those away somewhere between the cushions earlier, they were here, fuck, just fucking somewhere, he didn’t _know_ -

His fingers knocked into something hard and there was a crinkle and _yes_. Noya grabbed the two items, threw them down next to him, took the bottle again and squeezed so much lube out of it that it probably seeped into the upholstery. He slicked up four of his fingers, just in case. Asahi already felt pretty open around his tongue, but maybe he’d want more and Noya was going to give it all to him, everything he had, make him feel so fucking full and good.

He pushed his tongue in _deep_ , just to feel Asahi milk it for all it was worth, just to make him squirm. And Asahi did, clenching hard and groaning, „Yuu, it, I…“ There was something in his voice. Noya opened his eyes and when had he even closed them? He should have been paying more attention, because Asahi was a fucking spectacle. Hair strewn over his face, the pillow, caught between his fingers fisting the cushion. He’d raised his elbows at some point, pressing his glowing cheek against his bicep, face wedged in between his muscles and hidden from view, but not from Noya.

His eyes glittered like marbles and Noya’s heart jumped. Maybe he was close to crying.

„Yuu, I….“ Asahi panted through his bite swollen lips, „Take me bare.“

Noya stared. He stopped moving, stopped breathing, stopped living for a second.

Asahi fidgeted in Noya’s lap and he could feel it on his fucking tongue. „I’m sorry, I, I should have said something. Earlier, I just, you told me to tell you when I, and I want… that, want to feel you inside me. Want you to cum inside me like that, just, just right in me….“

Honestly, it was no surprise. Noya vividly remembered the day they’d gotten their test results. Asahi had practically sucked his naked dick raw, making Noya spill four times into his mouth, swallowing each load with a quiet moan. Cumplay had become a regular part of their sex life and Asahi’s enthusiasm for Noya to squirt on every part of his body had definitely something to do with it. So there was no reason for Noya’s throat to seize up the way it did. No reason at all for his face to heat up from his forehead to his collarbone, for his heart to burn right through his chest.

The merino wool seemed to absorb sound as well. Not a fiber whispered as Noya shuffled back, contrary to the squelching noise that emerged when he pulled his tongue out of Asahi’s ass. Asahi flinched in embarrassment, twisted his face a little bit further into his arm. Noya saw everything, because now his eyes were fixed on Asahi, utterly incapable of looking away from this man. 

Asahi, who didn’t want anything more in the world than to be so incredibly close to Noya. Who loved him quietly, but with a desperation that bordered on the obscene. 

With Asahi’s body resting back on the sofa, Noya had all the room to stretch out over him. His hand shook when he laid it over Asahi’s own woven into the pillow. Asahi’s elbows lowered a little, making room for Noya’s face to hover over his own. He was so flushed. His eyelids dropped slightly when he felt Noya’s fingers ghosting over his puffy hole. Moisture glistened in his lashes, clung to the corner of his eyes. Noya was so close to him that he felt Asahi’s breath drift over his chin, caught the scent of his aftershave, of the red wine staining his lips. 

Between the curves of Asahi’s arms, so close that he couldn’t see anything but Asahi’s face dipped in shadow and light, Noya whispered, „I love you.“

Their harsh breathing was the only noise in the room.

„I, I love you so _fucking_ much,“ Noya breathed, „Like I don’t know if I could ever live without you again. And I don’t want to. There is nothing in my life that’s as important as you are to me, not even fucking volleyball. And that’s basically like my whole life so you’re more important than the biggest part of my life, and you, I don’t know, you make me feel _strong_ , like I know that I can’t stop a running bus or whatever, but it feels like I could when I’m with you. Or lift a crane or, or receive 100 spikes in a row or-“

Asahi’s wet laughter interrupted him. „Okay, okay, I, I get the picture.“

He unfolded his arms, raised his hands to hold Noya’s face so gently. A few tears escaped his eyes and streamed down his cheeks.

Asahi was smiling. „Me too, Yuu. I love you, too.“

And Noya knew that. He had known it for literal months, had shaped and prodded that knowledge in his mind so many times. But that didn’t stop his throat from choking and his eyes from burning like the heart in his chest. 

He leant into Asahi’s touch. Their noses bumped as he rasped, „I love you. Like a lot, I, I really, _really_ love you, Asahi.“

The smile on Asahi’s face spread wide. „I know what that feels like.“

They kissed. Like they always did, like they had done a million times before, but it did feel different somehow and oh my God, Noya was about to fucking cry. So he blinked the wetness in his eyes away before parting from Asahi’s mouth.

But Asahi just looked at him once and grinned knowingly. The effect was only slightly ruined by his own tears running into his hair and the tender touch of his hands. „And people think I’m the sap in this relationship.“

„You will tell no one,“ Noya demanded with a cracking voice. Not really having a lot of leverage at his disposal, he pressed his fingers more menacingly against Asahi’s hole.

Asahi giggled again. He lowered his hands to Noya’s jaw, pressed kisses to his cheek. „Is that supposed to be a threat? Because it kind of sucks if it is.“

Like Noya didn’t know that. He retaliated, but not really, by inserting the tips of two his fingers. Asahi slightly arched his back under him.

„Yuu,“ Asahi moaned against Noya’s cheek, „Your cock, open me up with your cock.“

Fucking hell, okay, yes, they were back on it.

Noya held his breath for a moment, released it in a shudder. „Okay, yeah, I, you just need a little lube, okay?“

Asahi nodded, his lips catching on Noya’s cheek. Quickly, Noya slipped his middle finger inside, spread the lube around. The rimming had been a better preparation than he expected, just not enough for Asahi to take Noya’s dick immediately.

But that’s what Asahi wanted. For Noya’s bare prick to burrow into him, practically forcing him open until he was stuffed full with it. And fuck if Noya wasn’t gonna give him exactly that.

He slicked himself up with the lube left on the rest of his fingers. Just because you couldn’t have too much of it, he groped around for the bottle again, miraculously opened it with one hand and rubbed more lube on himself. Coated to the point of dripping with it, Noya lined himself up.

He entangled his left deeply in Asahi’s hair. His nails scratched lightly against Asahi’s scalp as he pulled his head back down. Asahi followed the movement, locked his eyes with Noya’s. He nudged a little more firmly against Asahi’s hole and shivered. 

Noya held his gaze firmly while he pushed into Asahi painfully slowly. Always so eager, Asahi slid down on Noya’s cock immediately, taking just a little more, before Noya withdrew again.

„Hold your horses, okay? I’m gonna hammer you soon enough.“

Asahi gasped a laugh, another tear disappearing into his hair. Noya seized the moment, slipped a little further inside and fuckity _fuck_ , maybe he had underestimated this whole bareback thing, what with how he was suddenly seconds from firing off and his dick wasn’t even entirely inside, shit.

Noya breathed, withdrew a little, pushed back in. He watched Asahi bite his bottom lip hard, his eyebrows furrow in pleasure, felt his arms wrap around his back to hold him close. Still looking at Noya, even as he could see fresh tears collecting on his lashes.

„Feels okay?“ Noya asked, only to have Asahi blurt it out at him, like he’d only been waiting for Noya to ask, „Feels, _hm_ , feels so good, Yuu, I can take more, give- you can, put in more.“

Noya’s hips twitched with the words that Asahi didn’t say, _give me more_. So he did. His cock burrowed in deeper, and Noya swore he could feel it burst out precum just by how tight Asahi was. 

Asahi panted, _choked_ , as if he was choking on Noya’s dick, „Yuu- More-“

„God, you’re so fucking needy,“ Noya growled. Asahi’s expression changed into surprise. He didn’t say anything, just kept looking at Noya, who started to pale, because shit, wrong tone of voice, wrong phrase, wrong emphasis, fucking everything wrong, he-

„Yes,“ Asahi whined, „ _Yes_. Please, I, I need you, Yuu, please.“ And then quiet, abashed: „Need your cum.“

Fucking _shit_. „Is this a test, are you testing me, because if it is, I’m failing it phenomenally fast-“

„No, Yuu, I need you, I need you so much, please, Yuu-“

And then Asahi just moaned as Noya sank his cock entirely into him, just pushed in deeper and deeper until he felt Asahi’s entrance spasming around the hilt and he honestly wanted to wait, but Asahi’s fingers dug into his back and his eyes were so wide and wet and then he gasped, „Don’t stop, Yuu, don’t stop, don’t stop-“

So Noya didn’t, just shoved right back in and started fucking Asahi, in and out of his tight hole that clenched and squeezed, so fucking _tight_ , making him bounce on the cushions and stifle a shout. The tears came almost simultaneously and Noya lapped at them like a dog, a bitch to Asahi’s love. He was so smooth, so hot in- _inside_ and Noya suddenly choked on that, because they were gloriously close, dragging skin across skin and he groaned, pushed in hard and Asahi couldn’t hold on, looked at him and cried out, arched his back to take Noya deeper. Noya wanted that, too, wanted to bury his naked cock so far up into Asahi’s ass that Asahi could feel it in _weeks_ , so Noya seized him by the back of his knee, lined it up with his chest, moved his other hand to sling it around Asahi’s shoulders and pounded into him.

Asahi did something that was very close to a wail while Noya tried not to cry, just dragged Asahi back onto his dick with every push that drove him in deeper and he was just so fucking close already. Desperately, he mouthed at everything he could reach, Asahi’s cheek, his lips, his chin, not caring which part of him he was kissing as long as he kissed him. Noya was just smearing his lips against the corner of Asahi’s mouth when Asahi pressed his lips against Noya’s, just breathing against him and gasping, „Yuu, I love you, Yuu, Yuu, _Yuu_ -“ and Noya choked on the heart in his throat and stammered through his tears, „I love you, too“ took hold of Asahi’s soaking wet cock and jerked him from root to tip, then just fiercely stroked the head, working his foreskin over the glans and moaning at the slippery sound that he knew Asahi loved just as much as him.

Muscles taut, voice breaking, Asahi bucked so hard that Noya had to _shove_ him back down on his cock and then he spurted between them, shaking and sobbing Noya’s name over and over as his cock splashed all over his chest, hot and hard and jerking in Noya’s hand while Noya cried and pushed and came, trembling and pulsing his cum deep into Asahi to a shivery murmur of _yesyesyes_ from Asahi’s lips that had him drive in further, sniveled at Asahi squeezing him so much and wanting to give him everything he had, absolutely everything of him.

Gasping, Noya fell forward. He buried his face in Asahi’s hair, hips stuttering, but still pressing. Asahi’s cum was so warm and wet between them. Noya felt it run over Asahi’s glans as he circled it with his thumb. Asahi whimpered, squirmed into Noya’s hand, dick still twitching but dry. 

Noya just lay on top of him and quivered. Asahi ran his fingers through his hair and breathed. Noya’s tears got caught in Asahi’s hair, but it was too pretty to have to absorb Noya’s snot, too, so he turned his head. His nose flattened against Asahi’s cheek. There was a huff that could have been a laugh and then Asahi turned his head, too, and kissed Noya.

It was hardly more than a mashing of lips, salty from their tears and filled with affection. Noya had to swallow hard so he didn’t sob into Asahi’s face. He sighed brokenly when the tips of their tongues touched.

They parted and looked at each other. Asahi moved his hand to thumb away one of Noya’s tears. He commented in a rough, fond voice, „Crybaby.“

Noya’s laugh was wet. „I’m coming for your title, just you watch. Imma howl my way to the top so quick.“

„Take it from a veteran,“ Asahi said, wiping at another one of Noya’s tears, „It’s not as easy as it looks.“

„Okay, I’ll take that advise, Senpai,“ Noya replied.

He brushed the tip of Asahi’s nose with his own. The daylight was fading from the room, but it was still strong enough to dip Asahi’s hair and face in stripes of orange and blue. Noya thought he could feel the workings of his body thrumming around his dick, although that was probably just his imagination.

„How you feeling?“ Noya asked, still gripping Asahi’s soft penis in a loose fist.

Asahi smiled at him, that lazy stretch of the lips paired with this gentle look in his eyes. Noya had yet to see this expression directed to anybody but him, and he planned to keep it that way. 

„I’m really, really good,“ Asahi drawled. 

„You sure? I mean, you told me not to stop, but…“

„Yeah, I’m okay. There was no pain, just a lot of pressure.“

When Noya only hummed thoughtfully in response, he added, „You can check, if you want.“

Noya nodded, raised himself off of Asahi with a grunt. He tried to keep his lower half as still as possible while he struggled into a seating position. Once he more or less managed, he looked at Asahi for confirmation, but he was busy staring at Noya’s sweater. Noya checked himself over and oh yeah, his new gift was soaked through with cum. 

While Noya laughed his ass off, Asahi cleared his throat and murmured, „They forgot to mention that merino wool absorbs semen like a sponge on the website.“

Noya smirked at him. „They should really add that, I bet that shit would fly off the shelves, then.“ He moved back, more falling out of Asahi than pulling out. Asahi’s hole was still wet enough, but Noya slicked his fingers with lube just to be on the safe side.

Carefully, he inserted the two digits. He watched Asahi’s face for any signs of pain, but was only met with lazy contentment. He pushed in further, scissored his fingers slowly. Asahi shuddered as he stroked the tips of his fingers against him.

„Okay?“ Noya asked. Asahi nodded in response.

He continued his ministrations for some time, rotating his fingers, feeling for any tears or swelling. Once he was satisfied, he asked Asahi to sit up. Noya felt around his anus with his thumb, pressing and massaging, but it felt loose and soft under his touch.

„Anything?“ he asked Asahi, just to make sure.

„All good,“ Asahi replied with a smile.

Noya reciprocated the smile, extracted his fingers. They both watched him do it, breath hitching at the same time when Noya’s cum gushed forward with a smacking sound.

Noya didn’t move. Fingers still buried halfway into Asahi’s ass, he watched his own spunk trickle down and pool into the palm of his hand. Asahi’s hole fluttered, just once, and another small flush streamed out.

„Fuck fuck fuck fuck,“ Noya whispered, his free hand fumbling for his phone which had to be still somewhere on the coffee table, it fucking _had_ to. He finally located it, but of course, the fucking lock screen that was fucking impossible to operate with his left, _gah_.

Noya cursed, but right! He could just thumb into the camera app on the lock screen. There was some more fumbling and then the camera app was open.

Noya pressed his lips together, pointed the camera at his cum coated fingers and snapped a few pics. It was quiet, except for the app’s shutter sound. He moved his hand a little, so the sperm ran down further towards his wrist, adjusted the camera angle.

„Use, use the flash, too,“ Asahi instructed quietly.

Noya grinned and turned on the flash. It made it look so much more dirty, with Asahi’s hole shining so puffy and wet in the light. Slowly, he pushed back in again, forcing some of his cum back inside. It slipped back into Asahi easily, his entrance practically sucking it up.

Noya smothered a groan. Fucking hell, if that wasn’t just the filthiest fucking thing he’d ever done.

And then Noya looked at the video button next to the shutter and realized that no, it wasn’t.

He took a different angle and said, „Bear down a little.“

He tapped the button just as Asahi did. His fingers sank in a little deeper and Asahi’s hole shifted. This time it gushed out soundlessly, just poured down Noya’s fingers. He collected everything in his hand. When there was nothing more running out, Noya pressed his palm against Asahi’s entrance and smeared his spunk all over it. He wasn’t sure why he did it, only that if his cum couldn’t stay inside of Asahi, he wanted it all over him. He rubbed it over his hole up to his balls, getting it caught in his hair.

Noya shut off the recording and dropped his phone. He looked into Asahi’s wide eyes, noticed his flaming red face. Still fondling his balls, he cupped Asahi’s jaw and grinned.

„That was hot as fuck!“ he declared and kissed Asahi hard.

Asahi was quite breathless when they parted. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but nothing came out.

Noya grinned again. „Wanna look at the pics later?“ he suggested.

„Yes,“ Asahi answered so fast that it almost gave Noya whiplash. He skimmed his lips against Asahi’s cheek, murmured against it, „I bet you do.“

He pulled back, gleefully took in Asahi’s embarrassed but eager smile. „Let’s get us cleaned up.“

Noya dove behind the cushions again and unearthed some wet wipes and tissues. His own clean up was predictably short. But right, the sweater. Noya wrestled his gift over his head, stood up at the same time. Once he wrenched his head free, he planted a big kiss on Asahi’s cheek.

On his way to the bathroom, he yelled, „I’m gonna go put this in the wash.“ And also take a leak for the sake of his own health, but Asahi didn’t need to be informed about that.

Just as the bathroom door swung closed, Asahi yelled back, „You should also pee!“ Noya threw his new sweater into their washing machine with a cackle.

Once he emerged from the bathroom, he found Asahi sitting on a tidy sofa in his boxers and open shirt. He’d gotten two plates and forks from the kitchen and cut up the donut cake, but right now he was busy rummaging through his backpack. He smiled at Noya when he plopped down on the couch next to him and pulled him into a kiss.

It was fucking marvelous how familiar and practiced their movements were at this point. Asahi angled his head just right for Noya to ease his tongue into his mouth, just how they both loved it.

With a sigh, Noya retreated after a bit, but lingered, pressing chaste kisses into Asahi’s lips that shaped into a smile under his own. After he finally pulled back, he offered, „You wanna have a shower, pretty boy?“

Asahi shifted a little on the couch. „Maybe later. I thought we could have the cake now, but we don’t have to if you don’t feel like it.“

„Hm, I get it,“ Noya said and reached for a plate, „You don’t wanna get all clean again if we’re just gonna mess you up later. Smart move.“

Asahi didn’t reply, just smiled to himself as Noya slapped a big slice of cake on his plate.

Noya wiggled his eyebrows. „Come on, let’s eat your bear hole.“

He made a big show of cutting off a piece with his fork and munching on it while Asahi choked on his own. With an extra wide open mouth to showcase the cake carcass in it, he said, „Hm! Finally, I can eat your delicious hole.“

It wasn’t difficult to see how Asahi suppressed a grin even as he groaned in exasperation. „I know you are under the impression that this is so clever and funny, but let me enlighten you: it’s not.“

„Fuck yes it is! And you wanna know why? Because you didn’t even make the connection although it was so fucking obvious! I mean I ask to rim you for my birthday and you bake me a cake. In the shape of a hole. A brown hole.“

With his fork leaning against his bottom lip stretched into a grin, Asahi said, „Only somebody with an appalling sense of humor would make that connection. And find it funny.“

„Uh-huh, and you’re free riding on my bad taste while laughing about it, so who’s the asshole here. Or rather! …The bear asshole.“

„Oh my God,“ Asahi giggled around his fork. Noya let his fork clatter on his plate in lieu of a microphone, because he fucking deserved that one.

Asahi chewed between his giggling, switched the fork from his dominant hand to his non-dominant one.

His eyes glistened in the last rays of the evening sun, spotlighted beautifully through the blinds. „I loathe you,“ he said just as his hand wrapped around Noya’s own resting on the cushion between them. 

Noya felt that yearning buzz right under his skin, warm and steady, melting into the blood burning through his veins. He was glad that he knew what it was, that he knew what it meant. And he was glad beyond all measure that it had brought him here, to this moment in this apartment with this man sitting next to him. 

„I loathe you, too,“ he said and held Asahi’s hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this out of control coffee shop!AU. As you can probably guess, this started with like one scene I wanted to write and somehow grew into this sappy mess. Still, I had a lot of fun writing it and hope you enjoyed reading it. Hopefully I'll see you at my next work! :)
> 
> Edit: I just saw that this piece has received over 1000 hits, and that makes me really happy. Although it is quite silly in places, I put a lot of my Asanoya love in this. I don't even know what I want to say, it's just super nice to see that people are reading this. Thank you very much!!


End file.
